Hateship Loveship
IFC Films | Release Date: April 11, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyApr 11, 2014
Watching Kristen Wiig's lived-in and alive performance as this blunt, practical, and yet totally innocent woman is to be in the presence of something very very special. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 17, 2014
Kristen Wiig’s performance in the unfortunately titled Hateship Loveship is so beautifully muted it takes a while to appreciate the loveliness of the notes she’s hitting. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensApr 11, 2014
The revelation of Hateship Loveship is the casting of Kristen Wiig, who effortlessly makes the shift from comedian to straight dramatic actress in a role full of potential ego traps that she never falls into. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 24, 2014
Hateship Loveship sneaks up on the viewer, not only in the way the story takes its unlikely turns, but in Wiig’s own portrayal of a woman discovering desire and, in the most subtle way possible, acting on it. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleApr 24, 2014
We may not understand her, this strange, solitary woman, but we know in our bones her desire for a place in the world. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 11, 2014
Although the cast, which also includes Jennifer Jason Leigh and Christine Lahti in sharp cameos, is very good, Wiig’s performance is self-effacing to a fault. Like a lot of comic actors, she overcompensates in dramatic roles by wearing a very long face. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 1, 2014
The acting is naturalistic, with a lived-in feel. These are familiar people, it seems like, made so by performances that never drift into lazy melodrama. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 10, 2014
Ms. Johnson and the screenwriter, Mark Jude Poirier, have transformed a taciturn masterpiece into an absorbing, messy, modest story of damaged relationships. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangMar 14, 2014
Under Johnson’s patient, observant direction, a relationship that might sound ridiculous on paper lives and breathes with surprising tenderness and plausibility onscreen. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 9, 2014
Wiig is so enjoyable to watch that it rescues Johnson's film. She's the best reason to see it. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijMar 14, 2014
The film’s beauty lies in its carefully observed details and the larger story’s got nowhere particularly surprising to go. Read full review
58
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthMar 14, 2014
Working off what appears to be a pretty decent script by Mark Poirier, who does a good job of juggling quite a few story threads and giving each enough attention and depth, Johnson's rigorous and formal approach doesn't allow for any sparks, let alone fireworks. Read full review
50
Film.comKate ErblandApr 15, 2014
Hateship, Loveship suffers due to its dedication to an oddly unsettling type of earnestness. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriApr 14, 2014
Hateship Loveship is in no way a comedy, but Wiig's enormous presence threatens to make it so. She can't disappear into the void, so the drama onscreen becomes hard to take seriously. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloApr 9, 2014
This particular character is so thinly written, and so aggressively nondescript, that it’s just a terrible fit for her(Wiig), resulting in a preposterous wish-fulfillment fantasy with an enormous void at its center. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 9, 2014
The supporting cast includes Nick Nolte, Christine Lahti, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Hailee Steinfeld, making the movie’s greatest accomplishment the fact that it was able to squander so many interesting actors. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonApr 8, 2014
Johnson doesn't seem to trust her star to unclench and act... In contrast, the rest of the cast, down to the gossipy local bank teller (Christine Lahti), feels electrically human. Read full review
50
The DissolveNoel MurrayApr 8, 2014
Hateship Loveship is unimpressive as a whole, but it’s stitched together with small, memorable touches. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 17, 2014
Unlike the teeming world living between the lines in Munro's story, there is not nearly enough in Hateship Loveship to keep you invested. Read full review
40
The GuardianChris MichaelMar 14, 2014
For most of its length, in fact, the film seems to boil beneath its quiet surface like a Munro tale, and indeed like Joanna herself. Wiig carries this apparently unresolved tension in physical form: a wonderfully mannered performance of short steps and furious scrubbing and standing defensively behind chairs. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenApr 6, 2014
It ultimately offers little more than another opportunity for famous actors to indulge their fetishistic, inadvertently condescending impressions of "everyday" people. Read full review
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