Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" said the film "is cut from the same cloth as "The Silence of the Lambs", but the piece of material it uses has the uneven shape and dangling threads of a discarded remnant... begins promisingly, then loses its direction as the demand for accelerated action overtakes narrative logic." Holden writes of Morgan Freeman that he "projects a kindness, patience and canny intelligence that cut against the movie's fast pace and pumped-up shock effects. His performance is so measured it makes you want to believe in the movie much more than its gimmicky jerry-rigged "[sic" plot ever permits."