Unabomber: Two Strong Performances Trapped in a Hollow True-Crime Thriller
Robert Daniels sees Janus Metz’s account of Ted Kaczynski’s early years as a film that promises a probing psychological study but delivers something closer to a routine TV movie. He also objects to the opening mail-bomb sequence, which he feels turns a real victim’s suffering into a cheap suspense device.
In his view, the 1958 Harvard scenes and the 1995 manhunt never connect, and because everyone knows who the bomber is, the FBI hunt has no pull. Shailene Woodley’s agent stays underwritten and a CIA thread simply vanishes. Still, he singles out Russell Crowe and Jacob Tremblay as the film’s liveliest element, especially in their final face-off. Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
Chris Evangelista is the most forgiving voice here, calling Unabomber a sturdier thriller than the average Netflix release, with a polished look and two committed lead turns. Tremblay plays the young Kaczynski with a coiled, unnerving intensity, while Crowe clearly relishes the role of the manipulative psychologist Henry Murray.
The Harvard material is where the film comes alive for him, steeped in a shadowy dark-academia mood, and he thinks a late reveal lands well. His main complaint is the 1990s FBI storyline, which keeps stalling the momentum; he suspects the movie would be stronger without it, and wishes it dug deeper into Kaczynski’s mind. Chris Evangelista, SlashFilm
Marko Djurdjić is the harshest of the group, arguing that the film falls short whether you judge it as a police procedural, a psychological thriller or a character study. He feels it boils Kaczynski down to tidy cause and effect while giving short shrift to the real victims and to the ethics of the experiments the young student endured.
He points to a cluttered script that introduces figures like Kaczynski’s parents and then forgets them, a stiff 1995 investigation that borrows from better serial-killer films, and a pace that drags despite a 100-minute running time. The cast, led by Tremblay and Crowe, is the one thing he believes keeps it watchable. Marko Djurdjić, Exclaim!
The consensus: Critics agree that Jacob Tremblay and Russell Crowe give the film its sharpest moments and that the 1990s FBI storyline drags everything down, though only one finds the overall package solid. The verdict: a handsomely made but shallow true-crime drama worth a look mainly for its two leads.
