Celeste and Jesse Forever
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: August 3, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
12
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisAug 9, 2012
This film has a voice of its own. And at a time when the romantic comedy seems to be a lost art form, that's saying something. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAug 1, 2012
I will say that it's been a while since a romantic comedy mustered this much charm by looking this much like life. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyAug 16, 2012
It's hard to know whether this is a function of the sympathetic screenplay or of Krieger's sympathetic direction - or both - but Celeste and Jesse are endearing even when they do unsympathetic things. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 8, 2012
I'm not surprised that Rashida Jones took the lead in writing this screenplay; the way things are going now, if an actress doesn't write a good role for herself, no one else is going to write one. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 3, 2012
It's as if we were watching one of those buddy-buddy bromances told, this time, from the perspective of the woman who is normally on the sidelines of the men's attentions and affections. It's a welcome angle. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 16, 2012
It is a tremendous performance by Jones, who co-wrote the script with her own ex-boyfriend Will McCormick, who appears as a drug-dealing friend with surprisingly grounded advice for just about anything. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 30, 2012
To its credit, Celeste and Jesse Forever wants to be more than a formulaic farce. It succeeds to the extent that the neighbors keep up with Jones. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigAug 17, 2012
Unlike most rom-coms, Celeste and Jesse Forever delves into the complicated heart of relationships, exposes some painful truths and allows melancholy to co-exist alongside breezy humor. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 15, 2012
Despite flouting Hollywood clichés, it nevertheless manages to be both romantic and funny even though it starts with the separation of the main couple. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 9, 2012
Jones is first-rate (and her fellow writer McCormack is fun as the wild-eyed pot dealer, Skillz). The film has a conventional fake-documentary look, but underneath it is an honest concern about how to learn to treat people well and kindly after the end. Or to get to an ending, or a new beginning, in the first place. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 2, 2012
What really lifts Celeste and Jesse Forever above the rom-com herd, besides breakout star performances from Jones and Samberg, is the movie's willingness to replace clichés with painful truths. It's irresistible. Read full review
75
The PlaylistWilliam GossAug 1, 2012
Forever doesn't deviate terribly from the can-we-be-friends-after-sex playbook, but it rarely opts for hysterics or contrivance to push our leads along, so long as you can swallow the amicability with which they initially divorce. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChris CabinJul 30, 2012
An honest and breezily melancholic film, thoroughly clear-sighted in its intentions and ideas and bravely committed to the emotional rigors of its central relationship. Read full review
70
NPRStephanie ZacharekAug 6, 2012
It's a highly imperfect movie - many of the gags are strained, a bit too pleased with their own finger-on-the-pulse zinginess - but it still represents a breakthrough of sorts, a way of looking at marriage that resists portraying a "failed" marriage as a failure. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyAug 2, 2012
There are moments when the film is a little too precious, taking time to preen at just how clever it is. Read full review
70
MovielineAlison WillmoreAug 2, 2012
Celeste and Jesse Forever creates a handful of likable and very human characters, so much so that halfway through you want the film to stop putting them through the emotional wringer so that you can just spend time with them. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 2, 2012
While Celeste and Jesse is decidedly conventional in most respects, it's pretty swell as an exploration of a relationship between a man and a woman that's no longer predicated by mutual desire. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsAug 2, 2012
It ends up being surprisingly touching, despite the fact that you start rooting for the cloyingly cute Celeste and Jesse to break up almost from the first frame. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJul 30, 2012
Jones is great in the part, even if this movie doesn't quite prove she should be carrying films on her own, and the actress makes her character's clumsy heartache feel like more than a plot point. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnAug 2, 2012
The whole thing is a step above studio romantic comedies, but that's not saying much. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 16, 2012
The movie is sardonic, hip, heartfelt, surprisingly white, and for all its ensemble pleasures, it's squarely about a furiously prim young woman and how she learns to bend. Read full review
63
New York PostLou LumenickAug 3, 2012
It may have the faintest relationship to any kind of reality, but Jones' tart performance cuts through the saccharine. Read full review
60
Total FilmEllen E. JonesNov 25, 2012
This honest, if not funny, comedy is all about Celeste. If anyone can make you sympathise with affluent LA yuppies, Rashida Jones can. Read full review
60
Time OutMatt SingerJul 31, 2012
Jones writes herself a couple of powerful scenes and plays them well, but she and director Lee Toland Krieger don't find many memorable uses for Samberg as her blandly schlubby hubby. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 23, 2012
Well-intentioned but underdeveloped and self-satisfied, it feels at times like the ultimate movie for the millennial generation, or at least its stereotype. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 9, 2012
Celeste and Jesse Forever engages in Bridget Jones-like comedy of mortification, sending its heroine down a path of self-discovery that ultimately seems more cruel than revelatory. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayAug 1, 2012
If nothing else, the shaggy romantic comedy Celeste And Jesse Forever establishes that Parks And Recreation's Rashida Jones is a movie star. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangJul 30, 2012
Celeste & Jesse Forever earns points for bucking formula, but its fusion of snark and sincerity has a calculated slickness that rings increasingly hollow. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 28, 2012
If you prefer hipster romantic comedies that are unromantic and not too funny, Lee Toland Krieger's movie may be your grande half-caf caramel mocha frappe. Read full review
40
EmpireGuy LodgeDec 3, 2012
A low-fi indie that swiftly slums into terminal feyness. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 31, 2012
Celeste and Jesse Forever isn't a movie many people will outright hate, but if this is the most original romantic comedy that Hollywood can muster, forever can't come soon enough. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 2, 2012
The more these two likable people rattled on, the more I found myself thinking about the elusive distinction between characters talking genuinely smart talk and simply chattering for the camera. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 2, 2012
Jones co-wrote the uneven script with Will McCormack, and one can't help wishing she'd aimed higher. Acknowledging cineplex clichés isn't enough if you still wind up embracing, rather than subverting, them. Read full review
40
Village VoiceKarina LongworthJul 31, 2012
Throughout, stereotypes are trotted out so that the movie can wink that it's too smart for them. Read full review
30
Boxoffice MagazineRay GreeneJul 30, 2012
This movie will not find an audience. It's got likable stars, a reliable commercial genre and a decent supporting cast, but nobody will turn out to see it, even if it was a labor of love. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldConnie OgleAug 24, 2012
You don't believe Celeste for a minute when she tells a new guy that she needs to be alone for awhile. You know he's coming back in short order to provide the happy ending. Here's hoping she doesn't want him to get a job, too. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorAug 2, 2012
So why are they divorcing, you ask. Who knows? Certainly not the creators of the very confused Celeste and Jesse Forever. Read full review
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