Begin Again
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: June 27, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
14
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 31, 2014
John Carney, who wrote and directed "Once," has made another great film that focuses on songwriters and the way their lives influence their work. Read full review
88
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJun 26, 2014
Begin Again is as uncynical and unironic a film as I've seen in a while, which will no doubt be a turn-off to many. But like a catchy summer jam, it doesn't need to apologize for being exactly what it is, nor do its fans have to feel guilty for getting it stuck in their heads. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 11, 2014
The sum total is a film with great music, a great story and a great vibe in general -- not to mention those Carney-crafted moments, built around joy, possibility and self-transformation. In other words: Carney has given us another pearl. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeJul 8, 2014
What makes it special is that it’s not another romance about finding a man. It’s about finding your people, about being a bit lost in your twenties and not knowing who you are or what you want to be. And it’s got bucketfuls of charm. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerJun 23, 2014
Begin Again is a joyous movie about the good things in life: love, family, relationships, New York, creativity and music. And Knightley and Ruffalo make for one of the most unusual engaging couples of the year. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 14, 2013
A film that lays emotions on the line and then drives them home with music. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 14, 2013
The film’s quiet pleasures creep up on you. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 2, 2014
Doggedly indie but unpretentious, Begin Again is one of the best movies I’ve seen about the music industry and the ways it changes people whose paths diverge. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 2, 2014
The music is hit-and-miss, and the movie sinks into as many cliches as it avoids. But the characters are appealing, and the storytelling is just unconventional enough to keep an audience guessing. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJul 2, 2014
Begin Again manages to be romantic and cynical about the music industry, which Carney touches on but never allows to take center stage. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesLon GrahnkeJul 2, 2014
When the songs work well, as a few of them do, much can be forgiven. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianJeff BakerJul 1, 2014
The problem is the song. It was gone as soon as it ended, a forgettable piece of soft-pop that was never going to be a hit, whatever the arrangement or the singer. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaJun 27, 2014
With its cast of extremely likable performers, the perfect summer-in-the-city backdrop—in this case, New York — and a soundtrack stuffed with catchy, well-produced hits, Begin Again makes for easy-breezy entertainment. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigJun 26, 2014
Ruffalo and Knightley make an engaging pair of colleagues and their musical adventure together results in an enchanting, gently funny and occasionally poignant story. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 26, 2014
It's rare to find a movie that uses music to define love without sentimentalizing it. But Begin Again, with songs by Glen Hansard and New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander, is a wonderfully appealing exception. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDavid Lee DallasJun 23, 2014
It's a film that lives in the high and not in the comedown, even though its characters are often stalled and wallowing. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyJul 5, 2014
Sappy but engaging. [7 & 14 July 2014, p.95]
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 27, 2014
Begin Again is very funny, mostly because Ruffalo makes such an adorably rumpled drunken a--hole. Read full review
70
The DissolveTasha RobinsonJun 26, 2014
Begin Again is all about the untrammeled joys of music, but like a hit pop song, it works better in the emotions than it does through any close examination. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyKeith StaskiewiczJun 26, 2014
"Once" was a small and well-loved heirloom, its imperfections part of the charm. But Begin Again has been burnished to a shiny dullness. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnSep 14, 2013
As a whole, Begin Again is a fairly mannered treatment of an expressive medium. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJul 10, 2014
Begin Again is a not-entirely-successful movie about not selling out; it’s a theme that must concern Carney deeply. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 2, 2014
Begin Again may not always swing, but it makes up for that in sincerity and a welcome willingness to ambush expectations. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJun 25, 2014
Writer-director John Carney re-plays his greatest hit with Begin Again, a semi-successful attempt to recreate the magic of the Oscar-winning musical “Once” in New York with a big name cast. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 2, 2014
It's easy to get sucked into Begin Again, to enjoy the friendly performances and the goes-down-easy songs, and to not even notice until it's over that the film is more a feel-good fairy tale than anything else. We might not have seen much that was truly meaningful in the end, but it was warm and fuzzy while it lasted. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 1, 2014
Even if Dan and Gretta charm each other more than they charm us, the music they make is harder to resist than they are. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 25, 2014
This film is never less than pleasant to spend time with, and that’s not a minor consideration when it comes to summer moviegoing. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 27, 2014
Most of the music is by New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander, and it’s heartfelt without ever really touching the heart. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 25, 2014
True to its title, Begin Again periodically restarts itself, nestling flashbacks within flashbacks; it’s an unnecessarily complicated structure for what is, frankly, little more than a corny, overstuffed, “let’s put on a show” musical. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 2, 2014
Begin Again is pleasantly predictable if you’re in an undemanding mood. If you’re not, it’s unbearable, like hearing a treasured folk song given a Hot 97 makeover. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 26, 2014
Compared with “Once,” Begin Again is a bit like the disappointing, overly produced follow-up to a new band’s breakthrough album. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithJun 25, 2014
If “Once” was a bracing blast of cool spring water, Begin Again is a can of Fanta. If “Once” was a piano, Begin Again is a keytar. If “Once” was Otis Redding, Begin Again is Bruno Mars. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedJun 25, 2014
The lugubrious pop songs by Gregg Alexander are execrable. Ms. Knightley isn’t remotely believable as a bike-riding pop singer. The saving grace is Mark Ruffalo, the only actor on the premises who shows any grit or passion for his character or for the music business. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlJun 24, 2014
All that prickly inner conflict Ruffalo is so adept at suggesting? Cheery Begin Again wants none of it, offering instead lots of scenes of two characters we don't believe could ever exist arguing about authenticity in pop music. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 14, 2013
Since the music doesn't connect like it should, everything else that is underpinned in the story by these songs also doesn't come together with the weight or power Carney surely intended. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJun 26, 2014
Knightley does fine work, but she’s been miscast. Her innate sophistication undermines the movie’s intentions right off the bat. We never believe her as Greta. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJun 24, 2014
False moments far outweigh the genuine ones, be it smarmy Dan’s indisputable genius (he’s such a stubble-sporting rebel, he refuses to wear suits) or the bogus anticorporate finale that leaves an especially slick aftertaste. Read full review
40
The GuardianPaul MacInnesSep 14, 2013
The film's sole saving grace is, of course, Ruffalo. Read full review
35
Film.comLaremy LegelSep 14, 2013
A film that inserts banal plot devices and endless cutesiness in place of where the “good parts” should be. Read full review
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