Warner Bros. | Release Date: October 7, 1988 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
4
Negative:
3
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75
The Associated PressDolores Barclay
Clara's Heart is a warm movie with many lessons to tell, if one is willing to listen. Its force is aided by Goldberg's performance and a noteworthy movie debut of Neil Patrick Harris as David. [17 Oct 1988]
67
Whoopi Goldberg has a lot of heart; Neil Patrick Harris gives a sensitive performance as her young friend; and the supporting cast is solid. The screenplay is gushy, though, and director Robert Mulligan rarely tones it down. [14 Oct 1988, p.21]
50
Whoopi Goldberg gives a first-rate performance in Clara's Heart, enough to atone for the sins of her Fatal Beauty period. But it's nifty work in a lost cause. The movie is sickly sweet, shot through with the kind of confectioner's sentiment that Hollywood used to crank out on assembly lines until the formula slid into disuse. [21 Oct 1988, p.E10]
50
The problem with Clara's Heart is that it grows increasingly sentimental and improbable. [16 Nov 1988, p.D05]
38
As directed by Robert Mulligan, the stately pace here feels sluggish and the music is no elegiac Pachelbel's "Canon" but a medley of dreadful cocktail lounge piano and swooning strings. [21 Oct 1988, p.G]