We study critical coupling at oblique incidence and show the suppression of both reflection and transmission in a multilayered system having a two-component metal–dielectric composite film as the top layer. Almost total absorption of the incident electromagnetic energy in the composite film is shown to be possible for both TE and TM polarization of the incident light. Moreover, the scattering profiles for the TM polarization exhibit additional resonances which can be ascribed to the excitation of the bulk plasmons in the composite film.