[T]he story cannot decide whether it is a romantic farce, a serious look at relationships, or a setup for a series of erotic daydreams experienced by a troubled married couple... The Twist is a confused and halfhearted comedy of manners that never decides on an approach to its subject... Although the film does have a few interesting moments, it is cluttered with pointless digressions and unfunny comedy.[1]
Chabrol's typical themes don't fit so well into wacky-comedy mode (given that French wacky comedies usually are no funnier than American ones) and not so easily into surreal-fantasy mode either. The chicly transgressive dreams seem intended to remind us of Luis Buñuel's French films of this era, but it suffers in the comparison. Where the film wants to be frothy and sexy, it looks grating. What tries to look smart looks dumb.[2]
