Human Nature
Fine Line Features | Release Date: April 12, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
16
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Both deeply weird and charmingly dear.
80
NewsweekDevin Gordon
Kaufman's new script isn't as inspired as "Malkovich." It's a precious little concoction -- the B-plus work of a madcap genius.
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A hoot, or at least a collection of delightful hootlets hung on a short, frayed line.
80
SlateDavid Edelstein
The characters are much less finely tuned and the climax is a botch, but the French-financed film is often a riot, and the sensibility is all there. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Pure unadulterated animal fun. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The result is a satisfying and original picture. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie has nowhere much to go and nothing much to prove, except that Stephen King is correct and if you can devise the right characters and the right situation, the plot will take care of itself -- or not, as the case may be. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
A treat for aficionados of oddball movies. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Fresh and often very funny, and it makes its point that when our native urges conflict with social norms, the former shall give in to the latter, or else.
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Nature lacks a little of Malkovich's freshness, but that's just about all it lacks. Read full review
70
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
You'll laugh a lot, but not without a sense of animal desperation.
63
Boston GlobeRenee Graham
It's just weirdness for the sake of weirdness, and where ''Human Nature'' should be ingratiating, it's just grating. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Human Nature's zigzag ingenuity wears out some time before the farce bounces slowly to an uneven conclusion. For all its highfalutin title and corkscrew narrative, the movie turns out to be not much more than a shaggy human tale. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
In truth, I didn't care much for it, while respecting it a great deal. It's self-consciously childish and "innocent," and everything is overdrawn to cartoon dimension. Read full review
60
Film ThreatRon Wells
What was needed was either a Stanley Kubrick, or, well, the Farrelly Brothers. Instead we get warmed over Spike Jonze. Still, a little watered down Spike Jonze has to be entertaining some of the time, so this isn't a total loss. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
The second movie by "Being John Malkovich" writer Charlie Kaufman is even weirder than his first. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The movie is too cute to take itself too seriously, but it still feels like it was made by some very stoned college students. Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
After some promising leaps, bounds and swings through a fascinating jungle of possibility, Charlie Kaufman's movie misses an all-important creeper. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The best stuff in Human Nature comes early, while the movie is still spry and daring --Then the film runs out of ideas, repetition sets in and so does boredom. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Feels forced and awkward, as though it's trying too hard to be weird, culty and profound. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Every single frame of this film is as cute, slick, and snappy as the adorable little mice who end the movie with a gag right out of "Babe: Pig in the City." Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The movie never gets off the ground. Kaufman's script is never especially clever and often is rather pretentious. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Charlie Kaufman's clever screenplay bears many traces of the same brand of originality and eccentric imagination that graced his work on "Being John Malkovich," although even at an hour-and-a-half the conceit is stretched almost too thin for audience sustenance. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Should have been more polished, and less tame. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Tries for both civilized wit and primitive joy -- and mostly misses both. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyJohn Powers
Although a few moments are hilarious, this would-be romp remains laboriously earthbound when it should be swinging gaily through the trees. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJohn Anderson
A goofball movie, in the way "Malkovich" was, but it tries too hard. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
An overemphatic, would-be wacky, ultimately tedious sex farce. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Characters remain stuck in their cliche profiles, and the direction -- by music video specialist Michel Gondry -- doesn't improve matters. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Feeble, vapid picture. Read full review
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