A Slipping-Down Life
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: May 14, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
15
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
A Slipping-Down Life may be low-key, but if you enter its unique atmosphere, you will leave exhilarated. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Taylor is utterly believable even when the screenplay (from an Anne Tyler novel) is too self-consciously quirky, and Pearce nicely portrays the guy she obsesses over. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie is not a great dramatic statement, but you know that from the modesty of the title. It is about movement in emotional waters that had long been still. Taylor makes it work because she quietly suggests that when Evie's life has stalled, something drastic was needed to shock her back into action, and the carving worked as well as anything. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
The casting of Taylor gives the film a powerful center, a bright light that keeps it on course. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
While the movie is content to be merely atmospheric, the performances convince you that here are two misfits who might be a perfect fit. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Struggles valiantly to keep its head above whimsy, and though the movie finally succumbs to an excess of heartwarming, it's a promising college try from a first-time writer-director. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Although mood often substitutes for momentum in Ms. Kalem's film, both of her stars give affecting performances, and there's growth on both sides of the unlikely romance.
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
A Slipping-Down Life has a worn, scruffy feeling. It gazes lovingly at vintage clothes and battered old cars as if they were the visible signs of authenticity, wishing that its morose, disconnected inhabitants could somehow be touched with the same elusive quality. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Mostly, by story's end, we're just glad they and their unfortunate clothing are out of our sight for good. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
The plot contrivances in which the story is ultimately sewn include the death of a father, an unexpected pregnancy, the sale of a house and the rest of the rigmarole that bad writers are prone to drag in at the last moment. It's too bad, because these characters deserved a better story. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Has an oddness and whimsicality about it that can, at first, be confused for authenticity. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephen Hunter
As it plays, it simply feels like a kind of cop-out. Nobody changes that much. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Taylor does that thing she does when she whispers as if she has just discovered speech; Pearce enjoys himself doing his own singing, and embracing grunge. Read full review
40
VarietyJoe Leydon
A curiously bland drama that fails to fulfill the promise of its early scenes. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
The two leads help create an atmosphere of quiet surety, but they can't elevate the film beyond its self-imposed smallness. Read full review
40
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
While the camera unsuccessfully courts Southern gothic humor, caressing a hodgepodge of retro-fetish knickknacks, the actors' knowing glances seem to look beyond the confines not only of the town, but of the film itself. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Pearce can sing, but Drum's trademark "speaking out" -- free-associative ramblings that recall Jim Morrison of the Doors at his most embarrassingly pretentious -- falls far short of the hypnotic effect Tyler describes. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Taylor and Pearce just aren't believable. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
There is also a lot of good supporting work in this movie, including the performances of Irma P Hall, Tom Bowser as Evie's clueless dad, and Bruno Kirby as Kiddie Acres' gruff impresario. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Writer-director Toni Kallem generates some touching moments (most of them involving Tom Bower as Taylor's wisp of a father), but this never surmounts the woeful miscasting of its two leads. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A sluggish, tedious film about lost souls living dead-end lives in a dead-end town. Their actions often defy rationality. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
I have not read the Anne Tyler novella from which the movie is adapted, but it is clear from the earliest scenes that Evie and Drumstrings are of a different generation from 37-year-old Taylor and 36-year-old Pearce. Read full review
38
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Kalem's grasp of dramatic storytelling is no firmer, and the disorderly film merely chases its tail for the second half, going nowhere fast. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The director deserves admiration for sticking to her guns, but here's a heretical notion: Maybe the producer's cut would have been a better movie. This version may be too late, but it's also too little, and that's what hurts. Read full review
30
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
As a whole, the film is a perplexing, dark and brooding exercise, which only makes its inappropriately cheery ending feel all the more slight. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Released in theaters five years after its 1999 Sundance Film Festival premiere, Kalem's film is too precious, too self-conscious and far too enamored with itself to ever have any kind of genuine emotional truth. Read full review
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