Arthur Newman
Cinedigm Entertainment Group | Release Date: April 26, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
14
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreApr 24, 2013
This is more “Something Mild” than “Something Wild.” But Firth and Blunt handle their characters’ many revelations with care and play with layers of hurt and disappointment with great sympathy and pathos. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeApr 22, 2013
[A] sweet, semi-romantic road trip. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanApr 24, 2013
The way Firth embodies the character, with a robot stare and a flat affect that expresses each thought as a kind of minimalist hologram of emotion, he's playing a cipher who pretends to be a different cipher. How indie-ironic! Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 25, 2013
First-time feature director Dante Ariola (working from a script by Becky Johnson) has a good feel for these characters and keeps things moving along at a brisk pace. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineTomas HachardApr 24, 2013
Throughout Dante Ariola's film, the expressions of the false-identity theme are multitudinous, and about as subtle as the Colin Firth character's choice for a new last name. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 23, 2013
Uncourageously, the plot gets a case of cold feet, looping back to half-written family members left in the dust. But when it’s being wild, the drama has nearly enough character to pass for distinct. Read full review
50
Washington PostJen ChaneyApr 25, 2013
A film in search of a tighter edit and a stronger point of view. It meanders from scene to scene, calling to mind the images of leaking faucets and dribbling IV fluid that appear here in close-up. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 25, 2013
Arthur Newman is an old story and chronically, consistently uninvolving. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughApr 25, 2013
The closest most people will get to that state of existential freedom is watching actors in a movie about it, and the pleasure usually comes with a price — a reminder that identity, though arbitrary, is also inescapable. In movies like Dante Ariola’s debut feature, Arthur Newman, so, too, are the cliches and platitudes. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 25, 2013
Much as I enjoy the actors I didn't buy a word or frame of Arthur Newman. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayApr 24, 2013
Director Dante Ariola and writer Becky Johnston have such a strong idea at the core of Arthur Newman that it’s all the more frustrating when they follow it down the most familiar path. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedApr 23, 2013
Two lost souls on the highway of life — that’s what a well-acted but benign little trifle called Arthur Newman is about. Read full review
45
NPRMark JenkinsApr 25, 2013
In the real world or a realer movie, the deceitful Arthur and the larcenous Mike would eventually get in big trouble. Yet this road movie is headed not toward serious consequences, but toward docile acceptance. In spirit, it turns out, Arthur Newman is a pretty much a Wallace Avery. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 26, 2013
Is it possible to truly start life all over again? Arthur Newman might have been better if it had not started at all. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackMay 8, 2013
Arthur Newman is overwhelmed with arty ambitions and a heavy-handed acting style. Ultimately, all the weight prevents the film from taking off and soaring. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanApr 28, 2013
There’s never a moment when we forget that Mike and Wallace are just vacant personalities that two talented actors decided to try on for fun. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 25, 2013
The promise it begins with doesn't pay off. And while Arthur Newman is not a complete disaster, it does leave you wishing the romance and the ride had been a whole lot smoother. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMarsha McCreadieApr 23, 2013
Fun for a bit, things soon turn silly. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeApr 22, 2013
Firth and Blunt make a strange couple, and Ariola a musicvideo helmer making his feature debut, should have devoted more time to making the chemistry work than to sustaining the melancholy mood. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithApr 26, 2013
Just because two people are miserable doesn’t mean they’re interesting. Read full review
25
The PlaylistSimon AbramsApr 22, 2013
This is not the stuff of stirring humanist drama, but rather a bland scenario about boring people that want to mature but have no idea how. Read full review
20
The New York TimesStephen HoldenApr 25, 2013
The glum, episodic and unbelievable Arthur Newman is the film equivalent of a dysfunctional computer sloppily assembled from discarded parts of other machines. Read full review
20
The GuardianHenry BarnesApr 22, 2013
The flat-out dullness of Arthur is the point of Dante Ariola's debut feature, but it's also its undoing. Read full review
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