Stephen Rebello The Advocate Apr 20, 2022

Straight-Jacket's themes -- the price of staying in the closet, the pain of being an unwitting beard, the McCarthy witch hunts that destroyed lives -- are way too rich to merely get popped like champagne bubbles in a campy comedy.

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David Noh Film Journal International Mar 1, 2007

On film, things play as flatly as any failed souffl.

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Sean P. Means Salt Lake Tribune Feb 25, 2005 3/4

Until it tries to mean something, Straight-Jacket is an enjoyably manic little farce whose wit far exceeds its production budget.

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Jeff Vice Deseret News (Salt Lake City) Feb 25, 2005 2/4

At its best when it's sending up '50s-era Hollywood and it's at its worst when trying to make a serious point.

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Eric D. Snider EricDSnider.com Feb 22, 2005 B-

As satire, it is often deliciously barbed and catty, the jokes flying fast and furious ... but when it tries to make its points seriously, it immediately loses me.

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Jean Lowerison San Diego Metropolitan Jan 15, 2005

Some of it is smart, much clever, most funny and all entertaining.

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Rene Rodriguez Miami Herald Jan 14, 2005 2/4

It's a shame, then, that Straight-Jacket turns dour and melodramatic ... The light-hearted fun seeps out of the movie, replaced by trite interludes of coming-out angst, McCarthy-era persecution and even gay-bashing.

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Laura Kelly South Florida Sun-Sentinel Jan 13, 2005 2/4

The perkiness with a capital P, gorgeous set and great color can't completely salvage an occasionally strong cast and middling story (and don't forget a lousy, if literal, title).

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David Elliott San Diego Union-Tribune Jan 7, 2005 2.5/4

Movies can never again be so corny, campy and PC clumsy as some of the howlers of the 1950s and '60s. But Straight-Jacket has a spiffy and gay (both senses) time joining the party.

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Mick LaSalle San Francisco Chronicle Jan 7, 2005 2/4

It has verve, color and energy, but there's something fundamentally bogus about it, and whenever it takes a turn into seriousness, entire moments fall apart.

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Robert K. Elder Chicago Tribune Jan 6, 2005 3/4

Day's pyrotechnic dialogue and instinctive comic timing make Straight-Jacket a delight.

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Joe Leydon Variety Dec 23, 2004

A fey and frisky farce with a fabulous fashion sense.

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Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter Dec 23, 2004

Wastes its promising premise with a wavering tone that veers uneasily between camp humor and, pardon the expression, straightness.

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Stephen Holden New York Times Dec 13, 2004 1/5

This featherweight spoof of closeted, Red-baiting Hollywood in the mid-1950's is played as such an exaggerated cartoon that its political outrage is dissipated by its stridency.

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Ken Fox TV Guide Dec 10, 2004 2.5/5

Though its heart is in the right place, everything gets tangled up in the film's lunacy.

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V.A. Musetto New York Post Dec 10, 2004 1/4

Save your money and rent one of those old Hudson-Doris Day comedies instead.

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Edward Crouse Village Voice Dec 7, 2004

Offers up a super-queered, tinny 1950s, one that plays loose and preachy with the Passion of Rock Hudson.

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Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times Nov 29, 2004 2.5/5

Whatever pleasures it holds, Straight-Jacket is highly uneven.

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Annlee Ellingson Boxoffice Magazine Nov 29, 2004 3/5

This clever confection adopts the genre conventions of the era's madcap romantic comedies and, later, melodramas for its tale about barely closeted movie star Guy Stone.

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Chuck Wilson L.A. Weekly Nov 24, 2004

A Technicolor bliss-out.

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