Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Red Road

Play trailer Poster for Red Road Released Apr 14, 2007 1h 53m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
87% Tomatometer 90 Reviews 71% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
Jackie (Kate Dickie) spends her days monitoring a series of surveillance cameras trained on a rough Glasgow neighborhood. She spots Clyde (Tony Curran), an ex-convict, on one of the screens, then becomes obsessed with him. When she devises a plan to meet and seduce him, the reason for her obsession becomes clear.
Red Road

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Red Road director Andrea Arnold skillfully parses out just enough plot details at a time to keep the audience engrossed in this seductive thriller.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (90) Critics Reviews
Cliff Doerksen Time Out Rated: 4/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review John Monaghan Detroit Free Press Unfortunately, its superb performances and assured camerawork are overwhelmed by dubious psychology and a clichéd climax. Rated: 2/4 Oct 26, 2007 Full Review Peter Howell Toronto Star Like the Peeping Tom-paranoia of similar recent films Disturbia and Civic Duty, this finely crafted debut feature by Scottish writer/director Andrea Arnold packs a wallop. Rated: 3/4 Jun 29, 2007 Full Review Dave Giannini InSession Film Red Road is more than a view into the filmmaker that Arnold would and will become. It stands alone, by any comparison, as a difficult, great film. Feb 20, 2024 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews ...an erratic yet mostly rewarding debut... Rated: 3/4 Nov 29, 2020 Full Review Grant Watson Fiction Machine I firmly believe Andrea Arnold has directed Red Road in a responsible and appropriately complex fashion, but holy hell it sticks hard into the heart. Rated: 9/10 May 22, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (703) audience reviews
Audience Member You're not sure who she's following on the CCTV cams at work, or why she's obsessed with him. When she gets close to trapping him for a crime he didn't commit, her motivation becomes clear...and the guilt is revealed. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Between 2.5 and 3. Long, slow -it catches you somehow, but it is too much- and with not much (even spoiled in some aspects) story, but it is the description, with truth, of an open pain, and that deserves respect. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review bill p There are films that start out well where the cinematography is good, the dialogue is good, the actors and the characters are strong and not over done or under done. The milieu is beautifully expressed (it's the rough end of Glasgow) and things are suggested not pushed in your face. And the film continues like this, as little bits of the plot unfold, we are drawn into the main character's life without any over-explicit storytelling or heavy handed flash backs. Yes it keeps on being good on a level for some time. For some time. You begin to suspect that something is up - well you know that something is up but it hasn't yet been revealed. The film has a slow stately pace, an accurate and sharp depiction of the shabby and poor area of Glasgow in which it is set. It's good film- making, skilful storytelling, well directed, realistically and convincingly acted. But you begin to get just a little bit bored, a little bit uninterested (well if you are me you do). You know the plot twist will come in its own good time, and you suspect it will be worthy of the suspense and the acting so far, but you just can't be bothered to wait. There's enough time left for the film to take a few twists and turns, we're just into the middle hour of obfuscation and misdirection before, what, a half hour to tidy it all up and make a story of it with a coherent beginning, middle and end? If I had been in the cinema I think the big picture immersion, the fact of watching with an audience, the sense of being IN a story, not sitting on the couch with partial detachment always on the cards would have kept me watching. Here I can get snacks or tea or drinks easily, hit the pause button so that I don't miss anything - which in fact I did after, the first ten minutes, hit the pause button when I went out of the room because the filming was so atmospheric and interesting and I didn't want to miss anything. I do walk out of films in the cinema too it must be said, sometimes I just can't bear to wait and watch until the whole damn things drags itself to a filmic close, or the film is so bad I just can't bear to watch it anymore. I won't name these films, it just upsets people. So later though, from my sofa based theatre, I just got up to go out the room, to look up the plot in Wikipedia to check whether I would be missing out on anything astounding (I don't think I was). The plot was a little far-fetched maybe, certainly (sort of spoiler here - hope you don't skim read on ahead like I do) miserable and a bit contrived. So I made my wife some fruit tea and started to write this review instead. It has crossed my mind that people will read a little way down this piece, think oh gawd what's he on about, maybe I'll make a cup of tea or click on some Buzznet specials. So it goes. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member What thought might be a grim slice of Ken Loach-style social realism, or even [rec]-style horror, actually turns out be a deeply moving study of grief, loss and regret. Superb film. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member A film to think about it Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member A closed-circuit city monitor spots a man she has an undefined connection with from her past - and that's all we are explicitly told for over an hour as she follows him first by remote camera, and later shadowing him in person. Who is he and why is she obsessed with following him? That's what's supposed to keep us afloat through long stretches of silence and extreme closeups, a tall order for any movie to be really effective, and Red Road eventually sags under its own protraction. Made big waves at 2007 Cannes by claiming the top Jury Prize, I preferred the director's Academy Award-winning live action 2003 short film called Wasp included on the DVD. Andrea Arnold has got an observant eye for working-class lifestyles and the fraying urban societal fabric but her screenplays could use tightening. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Red Road

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

After the Wedding 87% 87% After the Wedding Watchlist Dogville 70% 89% Dogville Watchlist In a Better World 77% 86% In a Better World Watchlist Manderlay 50% 75% Manderlay Watchlist Open Hearts 93% 90% Open Hearts Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis Jackie (Kate Dickie) spends her days monitoring a series of surveillance cameras trained on a rough Glasgow neighborhood. She spots Clyde (Tony Curran), an ex-convict, on one of the screens, then becomes obsessed with him. When she devises a plan to meet and seduce him, the reason for her obsession becomes clear.
Director
Andrea Arnold
Producer
Carrie Comerford
Screenwriter
Andrea Arnold
Distributor
Tartan
Production Co
Sigma, Zentropa Entertainment
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 14, 2007, Limited
Release Date (DVD)
Aug 28, 2007
Box Office (Gross USA)
$153.4K
Runtime
1h 53m