Robin Holabird Robin Holabird Aug 24, 2021

The two-hour documentary provides plenty of background information for a stop on Floreana...

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Elissa Suh StageBuddy.com Mar 16, 2020

The film builds tension slowly and steadily and shows the stuff of true crime in an exotic land. The directors resist sensationalizing, and instead mete out the story in thorough--perhaps too thorough-- details.

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Ben Nicholson CineVue Apr 3, 2019 3/5

A real-life whodunnit provides a riveting narrative backbone, but despite some juicy melodrama, this languid doc never quite lives up the intrigue of its central conundrum.

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Bernard Boo Way Too Indie Apr 2, 2019 7.5/10

One typically feels a certain disconnect when looking at old black and white photos like these, but the readings bridge that gap and give the photos an eerie immediacy.

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Lisa Jensen Good Times Santa Cruz Sep 12, 2017 3/4

[An] exotic thriller of a doc.

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Chris Barsanti PopMatters Sep 18, 2014 8/10

In this gripping true-crime story, an absurdist stew of petty tensions and quasi-Nietzschean dynamics rip apart the tiny colony of Europeans who settled one of the Galapagos islands in the '30s.

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Mark R. Leeper Mark Leeper's Reviews Sep 5, 2014 8/10

holds the viewer and compels him

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Ryan Gilbey New Statesman Jul 31, 2014

The wealth of letters and journals, read by a strong cast that includes Diane Kruger and Connie Nielsen, provides an instant emotional charge.

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Charlotte O'Sullivan London Evening Standard Jul 25, 2014 4/5

To make a thrilling documentary about the past, you need dead people who were honest or creative in ways you can exploit. This extraordinary film, which deconstructs a murder mystery from the Thirties, has such people in spades.

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David Parkinson Radio Times Jul 25, 2014 3/5

It's like an Agatha Christie plot.

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Peter Bradshaw Guardian Jul 24, 2014 3/5

Quite a few pounds of fat could have been cut from this film, but it's a remarkable tale.

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Adam Lee Davies Little White Lies Jul 24, 2014 3/5

Could do with a brisker edit, but the bizarre, exotic nature of the subject matter is wholly riveting and confidently staged.

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Curtis Woloschuk Total Film Jul 21, 2014 3/5

Its unhurried pace and inability to wring tension from the conflicting accounts ensures that though it fascinates, the film never fully enthrals.

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Daniel Walber Nonfics (Substack) Jun 3, 2014 3/5

The story at the center of The Galapagos Affair is fascinating and historically resonant, and Goldfine and Geller tell it well.

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Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic May 15, 2014 4/5

The mysteries are fascinating, all the more so because they are still unsolved.

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John Beifuss Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) May 9, 2014

The peculiar fascination exerted by The Galapagos Affair is a testament to our voyeuristic desire for real-life tales of odd characters in awful situations.

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Tirdad Derakhshani Philadelphia Inquirer May 9, 2014 3.5/4

A dazzling documentary about an unsolved murder in an ad hoc community in the Galapagos islands in 1934.

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Stephanie Merry Washington Post May 8, 2014 2.5/4

"The Galapagos Affair" spins a strange and compelling tale, with perfectly sinister music by Laura Karpman setting the mood. But the movie is better at building suspense than following through.

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Derek Smith Tiny Mix Tapes May 2, 2014 3/5

Despite The Galapagos Affair's bloated runtime, clocking in at a shade over two hours, the two-thirds of the film that is good is a very compelling illustration of the inescapability of human nature and the constraints of society.

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Martin Dunphy Georgia Straight May 2, 2014

With effective use of archival footage, modern interviews, and narration from survivors' journals, this doc will have viewers debating whodunit for hours over postscreening beers.

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