Big Eyes
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: December 25, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
15
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 23, 2014
Shot for shot, Big Eyes is one of the most beautiful-looking movies of 2014, but to say that isn’t enough, because it’s not just pretty, not just pleasing to the eye. It’s visually astute. It is made by people aware of what these screen images mean, what they refer to, and the psychological effect that they will have on an audience. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 27, 2014
There's more tenderness in Big Eyes, and a playfully framed but nonetheless emphatic you-go-girl spirit to the proceedings, as we watch Margaret - a magnificent Adams - slowly emerge from her shell. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 22, 2014
As eccentric as his subjects are, Burton plays things relatively straightforward. This is one of the most mainstream movies he’s ever done. It’s also one of the more entertaining movies of the year. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 22, 2014
Adams. From the first time we saw her on the screen, we knew what she was feeling and thinking, just from staring into those huge, hopeful and sometimes hurt eyes. Her big eyes make this Big Eyes one of the best pictures of the year. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyDec 17, 2014
Despite its sharp feminist sting, Big Eyes never loses its light touch. Maybe the lesson here is that Burton should venture out of his dark, creepy comfort zone more often. Read full review
80
TheWrapInkoo KangNov 14, 2014
Especially in a year so devoid of serious female-led dramas, it's invigorating to see a feminist crowd-pleaser with the force of moral righteousness on its side. But Big Eyes is good, not great. What keeps it from excellence is its reluctance to explore the very questions it raises. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyNov 14, 2014
This nimble, bemused, culturally curious look at the married instigators of the kitschy “big eyes” paintings of the early 1960s exerts an enjoyably eccentric appeal while also painting a troubling picture of male dominance and female submissiveness a half-century ago. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanDec 27, 2014
It's not a bad movie, but Big Eyes might have been better off if it had sold its audience the same bill of goods Walter Keane sold America. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonDec 24, 2014
Throughout his career, Burton has always been capable of surprising audiences. Big Eyes is no exception. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 23, 2014
Big Eyes is an entertaining take on a pop culture footnote, short on the bizarre flourishes Burton typically employs. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 23, 2014
As provocative as the questions it raises are — questions about connoisseurship vs. populism, personal expression vs. the market, and the dark arts of press, publicity and shrewd self-invention — the film’s achievements stay on the surface of those themes rather than plunging deeper. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 23, 2014
For the most part, Big Eyes works because of its restraint - something rarely claimed about one of Burton's cinematic offspring. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithDec 23, 2014
Who gets to say what art is? Does honest emotion count for more than cold abstraction? If Andy Warhol likes it, does that make it OK? Big Eyes toys with some amusing ideas, and that’s enough. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 23, 2014
Big Eyes is a fabulous match of artist — Burton — and material. While it's one of the director's more low-key works, his trademark sly wit infuses the mesmerizing stranger-than-fiction biopic. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedDec 17, 2014
Nimble, off the beaten track and very entertaining, it’s the cinematic equivalent of a lava lamp. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 30, 2014
Adams is lovely and tremulous, but Big Eyes would be even better if Waltz was in the same key. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonDec 23, 2014
Fortunately for Burton, Big Eyes is actually good. Not great, but good enough -- the perfect middlebrow portrait of the ultimate middlebrow artist. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 24, 2014
We’re left with an enigma that is insufficiently probed: How does art this banal nevertheless capture us? Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 23, 2014
This is Burton’s most mainstream film to date, which isn’t to say it’s not an eccentrically entertaining ride. It is, but minus the kooky occult élan you expect from the man who made "Edward Scissorhands." It’s a Lifetime movie, as directed by, well, you know who. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Dec 22, 2014
Big Eyes has plenty of surface pleasures, but there was reason to expect more than that from it. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 30, 2014
A recent showing of Burton's artwork at New York's Museum of Modern Art attracted long lines and critical brickbats. Maybe that's why Big Eyes, for all its tonal shifts and erratic pacing, seems like Burton's most personal and heartfelt film in years, a tribute to the yearning that drives even the most marginalized artist to self expression no matter what the hell anyone thinks. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyDec 27, 2014
Entertaining in spots, obvious and irritating in others, with a one-note schticky performance from Christopher Waltz as Walter, Big Eyes is a strangely conventional entry in Tim Burton's filmography. Read full review
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