Beautiful filming brings to life late nineteenth-century Paris and the paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec. Each scene begs to be savoured… This is an ambitious feature which succeeds well in incorporating two merging tales into one movie. It is easily followed and engrossing from start to finish. The Footstep Man fills a niche of art house cinema rarely seen in New Zealand features.
Bronwyn Trudgeon, Capital Times

As one would expect of a film about film-making, directed by one of the leading lights of the New Zealand film industry, The Footstep Man is a movie in which evocative use of picture and sound – but especially sound – count for a great deal… The transitions between film, and film-within-film, are handled with all the confidence and ease one expects of writer-director (and highly-regarded cinematographer) Leon Narbey, whose Illustrious Energy was one of our best movies yet. His latest effort works best for the glimpses it provides into the fascinating world of film-making – the magic involved in the process of recreating the world; the way film-making, or indeed any art, cannot only parallel, but start to consume one’s normal life; and the dangers of letting the screen images take over from the real… the film has moments of great beauty, plus originality.
Ian Pryor, The Evening Post

The Footstep Man is an intriguing variation on the Purple Rose of Cairo notion of a film character coming to life… scenes of the Foley artist at work, dubbing not only footsteps but other soundtrack effects, are fascinating… Buffs should enjoy this inside look at the post-production process.
David Stratton, Variety