43
Metascore
23 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirAlthough Instinct is strictly a Hollywood formula picture, it's such an efficiently executed one, built around two such outstanding actors, that for the most part you won't mind.
- 63ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliA perfect example of how solid directing and good acting can almost redeem a derivative story.
- 60The New York TimesLawrence Van GelderThe New York TimesLawrence Van GelderThe medium is more palatable than the saccharine message because Hopkins and Gooding know how to put on a show.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleBob GrahamSan Francisco ChronicleBob GrahamThe warning against actors playing with dogs or children should be expanded to include men in gorilla suits.
- 50The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinA mushy-headed, unintentionally funny inspirational drama that plays like a clumsy attempt to crossbreed "The Shawshank Redemption" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest."
- 50Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonYou could be forgiven for thinking -- occasionally -- that you just stumbled into "The Silence of the Apes."
- 38Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertIf there's anything worse than a movie hammered together out of pieces of bad screenplays, it's a movie made from the scraps of good ones.
- 30Film ThreatRon WellsFilm ThreatRon WellsThe audience will respond better to ENTERTAINMENT than a club to the head.
- 25Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment WeeklyNever mind that the film's portrayal of the mentally ill is on a par with "There's Something About Mary" -- the clumsy moral that we were all better off as hunters and gatherers couldn't be sillier.
- 20TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghIn search of inspiration and the human spirit triumphant, they managed to cook up a pot of sanctimonious, reductive claptrap (which the credits confess was only "inspired" by Quinn's book) that's not in the least instructive or entertaining.