Metacritic reviews

It's an imperfect movie, but a tantalizing and rewarding one.

When Danny and Stu are on-screen together – The Escape Artist is immensely enjoyable.

The Escape Artist represents a lot more talent than is ever demonstrated on the screen.

There are lapses in the continuity, and the picture is pushed toward a ready-made, theatre-of-the-absurd melodrama--the kind of instant fantasy that filled One From the Heart.

Treatment frequently pushes past the careful to the precious, and the quiet, odd tale never becomes more than mildly intriguing.

The Escape Artist looks as if it may be intended for children, but it's so fuzzy in detail and character that it fails in its premise as either adventure or fantasy. [29 May 1982]

The Escape Artist is chockablock with intriguing ingredients, none of which pays off. It's a true oddball, but as much as one would like to encourage iconoclasm in Hollywood, a movie this incoherent can only induce exasperation. [14 Jun 1982, p.88]

A simple story is lost in the film's complex structure, and only when O'Neal and Julia are on screen together does this directorial debut of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel come to life.