Young Adam
Reception

Young Adam (2003)

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External reception

6.5
5 platform(s) · 7 ratings 24,099 votes
7.0/10 8,493 votes Synced 2026-07-25
6.3/10 15,393 votes Synced 2026-08-20
Audience 5.9/10 14 votes Synced 2026-07-19
Critics 6.7/10 Synced 2026-07-19
Audience 4.9/10 Synced 2026-07-18
Critics 6.2/10 Synced 2026-07-18
5.9/10 199 votes Synced 2026-09-12

External reviews

John Powers · L.A. Weekly 80.00/100.00

The movie is another showcase for the underappreciated McGregor, who disappears into his character so discreetly that, even as his face lets us track Joe's every thought, you never feel you’re watching a Performance.

synced 2026-07-19
Jonathan Rosenbaum · Chicago Reader 80.00/100.00

Despite the flashback structure, this is a film in which mood matters more than plot, while the hero's heroic stature steadily shrinks.

synced 2026-07-19
James Berardinelli · ReelViews 75.00/100.00

Darkly effective, and its grip lasts longer than we might be entirely comfortable with.

synced 2026-07-19
Rich Cline · Film Threat 90.00/100.00

This is a finely crafted film for grown-ups only ... and it's hard to remember the last time we had one that was this provocative and moving.

synced 2026-07-19
Roger Ebert · Chicago Sun-Times 88.00/100.00

This is an almost Dostoyevskian study of a man brooding upon evil until it paralyzes him.

synced 2026-07-19
Lisa Schwarzbaum · Entertainment Weekly 91.00/100.00

The clammy power of Young Adam lies as much in the frank, emotional nakedness the actors bring to their roles under Mackenzie's care as in the baroque hopelessness of the plot.

synced 2026-07-19
Michael Wilmington · Chicago Tribune 88.00/100.00

It's a movie drama with a surface so bleak and an interior so hot with eroticism that it twists your guts to watch it.

synced 2026-07-19
Derek Elley · Variety 80.00/100.00

All of the promise that was evident in Scottish helmer David Mackenzie's flawed freshman feature, "The Last Great Wilderness" (2002), is richly achieved in his second pic, Young Adam, a resonant, beautifully modulated relationships drama.

synced 2026-07-19
Gregory Weinkauf · Dallas Observer 80.00/100.00

Those seeking a spiritual counterpart to the yin of Lynne Ramsay's masterfully moody "Morvern Callar" will find their yang in David Mackenzie's exquisitely sorrowful Young Adam.

synced 2026-07-19
Marrit Ingman · Austin Chronicle 78.00/100.00

The film is set in post-WWII Scotland, but its tone and its telling are so stark, so Medieval, that it seems anachronistic when one of its characters picks up a telephone or plays a bebop jazz record.

synced 2026-07-19

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