The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 33% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 39 reviews.[14] The film has an average score of 52 based on 13 reviews on Metacritic.[15]

Negative reviews tended to criticise the narrative as being unfocussed. The LA Times film critic, while praising the cinematography, a “beautifully bleak brush stroke of contemporary noir”, and the “brutal extremes” of violence, wrote that “in trying to take a bite out of crime and another out of fame, [Monahan] ended up with more than he can chew for his first time in the director’s chair”.[16]

The New York Times reviewer found the cockney accents “virtually unintelligible” and complained of “abbreviated, sometimes unnecessary subplots”.[17] The A.V. Club also complained of “a surplus of plot threads that don’t have space to play out, and accordingly come across as clichés.”