68
Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaPhiladelphia InquirerSteven ReaClient 9 speaks plenty of truth - about politics, power, human nature - even if you don't buy into the hit-job hypothesis.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttIn retelling the still-astonishing story of the political career of Eliot Spitzer, a shooting star whose spectacular crash might forever obscure his accomplishments, Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney has all the ingredients for a potboiler: greed, corruption, sex, power, overweening ambition and jaw-dropping hubris.
- 80New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierGibney puts mystery back into a story we thought we knew.
- 75MovielineMichelle OrangeMovielineMichelle OrangeAs Gibney and Spitzer are at pains to point out, it's a story as old as Icarus: Man rises to power; man makes enemies; man gets greedy and is undone.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliSan Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliSpitzer was undone by his zipper, but as Client 9 makes clear, he was also undone by his refusal - or inability - to make nice with some of the state's most powerful characters.
- 75Washington PostAnn HornadayWashington PostAnn HornadayClient 9 doesn't make any excuses for Spitzer, who is interviewed extensively in the film and who wisely insists that he alone is responsible for his fate.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliAt times Client 9 feels frustratingly incomplete. Gibney hints at a conspiracy among Spitzer's enemies but is unable to fully substantiate this thesis.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)The Globe and Mail (Toronto)When Spitzer resigned, they broke out champagne on the stock exchange trading floor. Shame on them.
- 63Boston GlobeWesley MorrisBoston GlobeWesley MorrisGibney has too much information, too much material, and too many people to shape a mystery or a drama or even a farce out of it all. His movie has elements of all three without ever sustaining one.
- 25New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithLet us return to reality (all this happened less than three years ago; do documentarians think we don't read the papers?).