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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 45 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
12 Iffy for 12+
Read Common Sense Media review

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

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Moore makes Halley's awakening organic and touching. In an age when most teenagers are up to their eyeballs in postmodern consumer glitz, her movies seem radical not just in their retro squareness but in their unfashionable embrace of faith over ironic flippancy. Read full review

  • 60
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Thomas

    Works up some genuine emotion offset by occasional humor and creates individuals of a certain degree of complexity, but the film is glazed over with an aura of artificiality. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle |

    A thoughtful but uneven teen picture, also has too much going on. Read full review

  • 50
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    This movie is the worst episode of ''Gilmore Girls'' ever. Read full review

  • 50
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    I watched the movie with interest, yes, but not emotional involvement, and my appreciation of Moore was based more on her essence than on her character. Read full review

  • 50
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    The pop diva goes down with the bubbles in this hopelessly shallow soap opera. Read full review

  • 40
    Variety | David Rooney

    A bland romance that suffers from choppy development, dramatic overload and dearth of personality. Read full review

  • 38
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Moore and Ford rise above the hackneyed story, infusing the proceedings with their own chemistry and appeal. If only the adults responsible for this film could learn how to deal. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    Another soundtrack-driven, disposable, not entirely objectionable teen movie. Read full review

  • 20
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    A bad, unimaginative story posing pretentiously as the very opposite. Read full review

View more reviews for How to Deal on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 12+ Even Moore fans may find this hard to deal with.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that the movie has some strong language, and teen smoking and drinking. The grandmother's use of marijuana is portrayed as humorous. Halley's friend and her boyfriend have sex and she becomes pregnant. Halley begins to have sex with her boyfriend, but then stops because she says she does not want to care too much about him. Halley's sister comes home drunk from a bachelorette party with a male stripper's underwear around her neck.
  • Families can talk about how it can be hard to take emotional risks -- but harder not to.
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: A grandmother's drug use is played for laughs.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Car crash. A young character dies suddenly.
  • sex false3 Sex: Sexual references and situations, including adultery and teen pregnancy.
  • language false3 Language: Some strong language.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false5 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Teen drinking and smoking, and marijuana use (portrayed as humorous).
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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