Inventing the Abbotts
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: April 4, 1997 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Inventing the Abbotts has the cast and characters to be something special; the script just isn't ambitious enough. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The film belongs to Phoenix ("To Die For"), who is terrific. He has the gift, shared with his late brother, River, of conveying emotions without pushing them at you. The delicacy of his scenes with Tyler lets you enjoy the film for what it truly is: a heartbreaker. Read full review
75
San Francisco ExaminerWalter Addiego
The veteran Baker anchors the proceedings, and you would like to see more of her character. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Apart from the script, it's the actors who make this a film worth seeing; all of them look and sometimes even act like real people rather than types or icons, and behind their interactions can be felt the depths of lived experience. Read full review
70
VarietyEmanuel Levy
An emotionally powerful but extremely old-fashioned coming-of-age saga. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
All the actors caught me up so warmly that I stopped feeling guilty about liking this corny picture. [28 April 1997, p.30]
60
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Best watched as a showcase for radiant young talent. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie Errigo
What lifts this at key moments is the outstanding Phoenix's simpatico performance and we can add to the credit side happy casting that for once has assembled actresses and actors who really do resemble each other and present plausible siblings. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The only real heat among the group comes from Jennifer Connelly, who, as the bad-girl middle daughter, raises the stakes any time she's on screen. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The picture is haunted by a story problem: It isn't about anything but itself. There's no sense of life going on in the corners of the frame. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
This thing can take pride of place in a long tradition of Hollywood howlers. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
An awkward script, a mannered style and the selection of hill-and-dale Petaluma as a stand-in for an Illinois small town all undermine the film. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The drama is long on 1950s atmosphere and complicated feelings, short on emotional depth and real psychological insight. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverMichael Sragow
Drowns in vanilla carnality. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
The members of its young cast (Jennifer Connelly, Joaquin Phoenix, Liv Tyler) have all shown promise elsewhere, but don't really get to do much but look attractive and troubled here. They may be stars, but as long as they keep treading water in bland stuff like this, the world may never know. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Told from younger brother Doug's point of view, Phoenix's voiceover spans the length of the film and winds up making the images that unfold practically redundant. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJack Mathews
Inventing the Abbotts is pointless soap opera, anecdotal and superficial, mixing sibling rivalry, class conflict and tragic romantic entanglements in a style that mimics fictional life in the '50s more than it illuminates what went on. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
A pastel-pretty and oh-so-dull coming of age tale. Read full review
38
USA TodayMike Clark
Inventing the Abbotts would be a lot more fun were it a trashy Troy Donahue-Diane McBain vehicle ground out by Warner Bros. in 1960, the year this hormonally motivated high school-college romance mercifully concludes. [4 April 1997, p. 4D]
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Too long winded and dull. Read full review
20
TimeRichard Schickel
The goofy hysteria of something like "A Summer Place" was infinitely more entertaining and emotionally authentic than the distant smugness of this failed clone. [7 April 1997, p. 76]
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