"Played by Vlad Ivanov—the amoral abortionist from 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days—the chief is something to behold. He has absolutely no time for Cristi's crisis of conscience, but isn't content simply to order him around. He has to prove his superiority, and does so in a scene that is as excruciating as it his dryly hilarious, forcing Cristi to flip through the dictionary, looking up various related definitions and read them out. It has the tone of a vindictive schoolteacher punishing a student, but with much higher stakes, and yet Cristi is unable to do anything but bow to the will of the headmaster and the cursed dictionary, whose black-and-white factuality crushes any of his thoughtfulness and compassion."

4 Stars! "try as you might, you just can’t win a war against grammar."

Video: Reverse Shot‘s Eric Hynes interviews Porumboiu in Central Park.

"kind of slow, but fascinating."

"Police, Adjective has some anaphora about it, as well as some conscience. Despite its tedium, it settles in your mind, and like a cop on a stakeout, you find it may not leave."

Interview "Romania finds bold new voice in Police, Adjective"

"This was the most extraordinary entry at the 2009 Vancouver International Film Festival. Now’s your chance to find out why."

4 Stars! "one of the most captivating conversations committed to film in ages"

"an intriguing study of the way one man’s world works even if he doesn’t fully understand it."

"Police, Adjective has some anaphora about it, as well as some conscience. Despite its longueurs, it settles in your mind, and like a cop on a stakeout, you find it may not leave."

'Police, Adjective remains riveting throughout, acting mainly as a drawn-out build-up for a final act punch line that is simultaneously hilarious and terrifying"

"The definition of riveting: Romanian police drama finds its thrill in words, not high-speed chases"

"a cerebral thriller that takes a witty, dry look at the nature of postcommunist justice."

Liam Lacey's 60 Second Video Review!

4 OUT OF 4 STARS! "A wonderful, slow-moving tribute to inaction"

5 STARS! - "Porumboiu has constructed a thrilling exploration of the intersection between social dynamics and personal morality – and the way a nation can shift from cruel dictatorship to indifferent bureaucracy. " You’ll be on the edge of your seat.

Writer/director Corneliu Porumboiu's Romanian aspect has some comedy to it, but it's too grim for real yuks. The point of this well-acted but pulse-free picture is to show how slowly meaningful change comes. In a country relatively new to democracy and still struggling to shake its Communist past, offences that would escape attention elsewhere can loom large on official radar.

Writer/director Corneliu Porumboiu's Romanian aspect has some comedy to it, but it's too grim for real yuks. The point of this well-acted but pulse-free picture is to show how slowly meaningful change comes. In a country relatively new to democracy and still struggling to shake its Communist past, offences that would escape attention elsewhere can loom large on official radar.

"a welcome respite in an age when so many films seem to employ storyboard artists rather than screenwriters."

"an impressive wrap-up, one that may have you deciding it was worth the wait. Or not. Either way, one leaves Police, Adjective on an artistic high note."

During a conversation over coffee at Toronto's International Film Festival in September, Porumboiu, 35, discusses the decidedly unglamorous world of his latest film - which opens in Toronto this Friday - and how he fed his interest in film from a small town in Romania.

"The three-men-and-a-dictionary climax is simply brilliant: Never has the study of etymology been so mesmerizing."

"olice, Adjective is a really good film - a VIFF favourite of a couple of people I spoke to last fest"

"Police, Adjective" is one of the year's most striking films, the type that will be embraced by some and derided by others for its bone dry humor, its solemnly long takes (including scrolling down hand-written police reports) and the fact that its climax pivots on the dictionary definition of "conscience." - Interview

Review

"Porumboiu offers his audience a good look at Romanian life while entertaining them with lots of humour and insight as well".

Toronto Film Critics Association, POLICE, ADJECTIVE makes "best of" list for 2009!

5 Stars!!! Pretty much the only film at Cannes that everyone loved (give it up for Romania once again!), Corneliu Porumboiu’s masterly follow-up to 12:08 East of Bucharest may also be the most riveting movie to ever hinge on matters of semantics. The dry and meticulous depiction of a young cop’s investigation of a small-time pot dealer (complete with a rendering of police bureaucracy and drudgery that betters even The Wire) leads to a climactic discussion that is frequently hilarious yet ultimately as serious as cancer. You’ll never look at a dictionary the same way again.

5 Stars!!! The vitality and originality of the Romanian new wave continues in the unlikely dramatic sphere of uncovering the real meanings of words.

"Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective brilliantly and clinically inspects language, bureaucratic runarounds, and the conscience of one noble, in-limbo cop."