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Must Go!
Avg. Critic Score: 84 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
15 Iffy for 15+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    The New York Times | Dana Stevens

    It rediscovers the aching, desiring humanity in a genre -- and a period-- too often subjected to easy parody or ironic appropriation. In a word, it's divine. Read full review

  • 100
    Los Angeles Times | Manohla Dargis

    The film's three leads are extraordinary, but what Moore does with her role is so beyond the parameters of what we call great acting that it nearly defies categorization. Read full review

  • 100
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert are called on to play characters whose instincts are wholly different from their own. By succeeding, they make their characters real, instead of stereotypes. Read full review

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Bold and brilliant. Read full review

  • 90
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    Three sterling performances from Moore, Haysbert and Quaid, all of whom grapple with psychic pain in different, touching ways. Read full review

  • 90
    Variety | David Rooney

    An accomplished marriage of elaborate style and content. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    If it's ultimately a failure -- and I think it is -- it's still worth seeing, because it's the most ambitious and magnificent failure in recent memory. That, in a sense, qualifies it as a certain kind of "good movie." Read full review

  • 75
    USA Today | Mike Clark

    Glossy or not, the movie is unflinchingly tough-minded, down to its Hollywood-weepy ending, which, if you think about it, may be the year's gloomiest. Read full review

  • 70
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    Yet dramatic energy is in short supply. The actors move about this elaborate movie museum in a modified dream state, as if living in the present while rooted in the past. But the strategy doesn't work. It's an imitation of lifelessness. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    The movie has the sense of being embalmed, or pickled. With its stilted dialogue not quite kitschy enough to be funny and not quite authentic enough to be realistic, the whole movie feels as if it's taking place in formaldehyde. Read full review


Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ Sensitive, mature melodrama about sexuality in the 1950s.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this Oscar-nominated melodrama deals with mature, complex issues, including prejudice, sexuality, and adultery. Characters make anti-Semitic and racist comments; there's also some drinking and smoking. One character gets drunk in an attempt to numb the pain he feels about not being true to himself.
  • Families can talk about why the story is set in the 1950s and about what's changed since then. Younger family members may want to know more about the older members' recollections of that era. Did Raymond and Frank make different choices when it came to what was best for their children? What do those children think about what's going on around them? How will filmmakers 50 years from now see today's movies and what will they pick to pay tribute to?
The good stuff
  • message true1 Positive messages: The movie's characters are complex, and they face serious dilemmas and complicated issues relating to marriage, sexuality, race, and social expectations. The 1950s' suburban setting is portrayed as rigid and quick to gossip and condemn, but ultimately the main characters are true to themselves and their feelings.
What to watch for
  • violence false1 Violence: Tense scenes.
  • sex false3 Sex: Characters discuss sex; heterosexual and homosexual couples kiss. Some suggested intimacy and discussion of adultery.
  • language false3 Language: One "f--k" and occasional uses of phrases like "goddamn" and "oh God."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false2 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Social drinking; a character gets drunk. Some smoking (era-appropriate for the '50s setting).

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