About Alex
Screen Media Films | Release Date: August 8, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
14
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ObserverRex ReedAug 7, 2014
The intelligence and unhackneyed humor of the believable, unself-conscious screenplay by fledgling director Mr. Zwick (son of veteran director Edward Zwick) deserves special praise. It never hits a false note. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoAug 8, 2014
About Alex has the kind of energy that reminds one, even this cynical critic, why writers and directors keep returning to this oft-told tale. Read full review
63
New York PostSara StewartAug 6, 2014
As About Alex moves toward its conclusion, it devolves into some plot resolutions that were a lot less predictable back in the ’80s. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJun 20, 2014
There's nothing new under the sun, but About Alex is very, very not new. Luckily, most of its capable cast muster the warmth we require, and Zwick's script offers more humor (however mild the laughs are) than sentimentality. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangAug 8, 2014
Neither the script’s up-to-the-minute signifiers nor its cheekily self-aware humor can entirely dispel a formulaic feel. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 8, 2014
If you’ve seen “The Big Chill,” you’ve seen this movie, with older grown-ups. Even if you haven’t, you won’t be surprised by much. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephanie MerryAug 7, 2014
The plot is so similar to “The Big Chill” that it almost could be called a remake, except that it isn’t nearly as funny, it follows millennials instead of baby boomers and the characters tweet. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 7, 2014
Of the bunch, Plaza, Minghella and Parker fare best, though Parker's Ben is weighed down with cliches. Alex ostensibly is the focal point of the film, but Ritter is relegated mostly to observer status, healing while watching the melodramas unfold around him. A few of them are interesting. But not enough, not in a story that seems familiar because, after all, it is. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloAug 7, 2014
About Alex benefits from a uniformly strong cast that does its best to find moments of truth in the banal, derivative scenario they’ve been handed. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAbby GarnettAug 5, 2014
A lightweight Big Chill reworked for today's young professional set, which proves too clumsy and self-conscious to live up to its weighty subject matter. Read full review
50
The PlaylistGabe ToroJun 20, 2014
About Alex is about too much and too little, a sandbox for its considerable cast, but ultimately just following the reunion rulebook. Read full review
42
IndieWireDiana DrummAug 26, 2014
Focusing on cultural references and social cues, About Alex fails to give us a big picture compelling enough to overlook its flaws. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergAug 7, 2014
The insight that social media fosters false intimacy is old news. The film shows only a half-formed sense of how careers have changed in 30 years. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 7, 2014
The movie stalls in a limbo of half-realized characters and superficial weightiness. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 7, 2014
On the bright side, the actors are experienced enough to anchor their free-floating characters. But if you’d like to see this sort of thing done well, watch 2011’s infinitely superior Channing Tatum dramedy “10 Years” on Netflix instead. Read full review
40
Film.comJames RocchiAug 6, 2014
The only thing moviegoers will hate more than the phony, faux-felt conversations of About Alex at its worst is the unfulfilled promise its high points suggest when it’s at its best. Read full review
40
The DissolveNoel MurrayAug 5, 2014
If About Alex were the pilot to a new television series, there’d be reason to stick around for a few episodes, if only to see these actors grow into their roles and develop more chemistry. But About Alex isn’t television, and Zwick never really solves the problem of how to make a houseful of semi-likable characters into cinema. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineDavid Lee DallasAug 4, 2014
However self-aware the film may be, its characters and moods and conflicts are too over-determined and familiar to linger in the memory very long after the credits roll. Read full review
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