Dear Wendy
Wellspring Media | Release Date: September 23, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
33
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
11
Negative:
11
Watch Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
A satirical blast at America's gun culture. But it's so entertaining that even a die-hard NRA member might be impressed. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
By the time this astute and entirely distinctive film is over, the folly of America's love affair with guns, past and present, is laid bare with the same inescapable force with which Gregg Araki exposed the horror of child molestation in "Mysterious Skin," a similarly poetic and deceptively affectless film. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Lars Von Trier's silly script about a group of pistol packing misfits gets better treatment than it deserves, thanks to a fine young cast and the game direction of Thomas Vinterberg. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJames Greenberg
Part parable, part wild west shoot-out, yet totally original, Dear Wendy is a powerful indictment of American gun culture. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
When you have to ask yourself whether this parable is intended as comedic satire or stone-cold-serious moralizing, that's a big sign that you're watching a misfire. Read full review
50
Film ThreatJeremy Mathews
The film is challenging and consistently interesting, but also trite and overbearing to the extent that it damages its message. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Starts out as an inspired test case for the continued necessity of the Second Amendment, and only near the end does it lose some of its tightly concentrated focus. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
Von Trier has a tendency to go overboard in his denunciations of American violence (Dogville). By contrast, Dear Wendy is a cogent, comprehensive take on the land and the films that obsess him. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
It may sound like a Peter Pan spinoff, and Dear Wendy does involve lost boys in a stagey setting, but the film is closer to "A Clockwork Orange" than a tale of lasting youth. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Dear Wendy is absurd to the point of comic parody. Bloody as it is, it has no access to viewers' emotions, and its message - play with fire and you get burned - is too obvious to be provocative. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Taking wobbly aim at our country's complicated love affair with guns, the movie's the very definition of a cheap shot. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Surreal, vaguely amusing, European-made drama. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Michael Posner
One part satire, two parts allegory, and several parts dreary sermon on the pernicious effects of America's gun culture. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Its mad rush to offer shallow takes on every Big American Issue would be offensive if it weren't so misguided. It's almost cute the way Dear Wendy thinks it knows what it's talking about and then just keeps going and going long after it's stopped making sense. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A tedious exercise in style, intended as a meditation on guns and violence in America but more of a meditation on itself, the kind of meditation that invites the mind to stray. Read full review
30
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Especially in the climactic, clumsily staged gunfight, the prevailing mode is wide-eyed idiocy--which might be the point, since von Trier's satirical target is the hypocrisy of (news flash!) America's eagerness to enforce stability and security with all guns blazing. Read full review
30
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Well made but unlikable and dramatically absurd picture. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The protracted shoot-out at the end of Dear Wendy is even more pornographic than the moment when a female member of the Dandies exposes her breasts. The audience is clearly expected to enjoy the bloodbath even while it disapproves. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
It's not merely that Dear Wendy was shot on Danish and German locations that don't look quite right; it's that almost every decision made by the production designers is wrong, or at least discordant. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's a long slog, not because what the film says is provocative but because the technique is as slack as the writing. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The movie's smugness is insufferable.
20
Washington PostDesson Thomson
It's a diatribe from beginning to end. Read full review
10
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The story is laughably incoherent, which would be less bothersome if the movie were not also so unremittingly pretentious. Read full review
10
Dallas ObserverStaff (Not credited)
Is there anything more tedious than the guy who complains and complains about something he knows nothing about? Danish cinema auteur Lars von Trier has never been to the United States because he's afraid of flying, yet he seems determined to keep making movies about how horrible this country is. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Annoyingly simplistic. Read full review
More From This Movie

33 Critic Reviews

6.9 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL