Jayne Mansfield's Car
Anchor Bay Films | Release Date: September 13, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
10
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The GuardianAndrew PulverAug 2, 2013
It's ambitious enough to aim at polished, intelligent character drama, and pulls it off successfully. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 15, 2013
Jayne Mansfield’s Car isn’t likely to set America’s theaters on fire, but it’s a powerful whisper of a film. Read full review
70
The DissolveMike D'AngeloAug 25, 2013
The story’s overall trajectory is familiar, and sometimes clichéd, but it still has the power to surprise and startle from moment to moment, which is what really counts. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 10, 2013
It’s too long and wildly uneven. And the longer it goes on, the more uneven and oddball it seems. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanSep 13, 2013
This isn’t the sort of movie that defines anyone’s career, as “Sling Blade” once did. But in an industry averse to risk, passion projects — even uneven ones — are always welcome. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 12, 2013
With actors this good, however, there's rarely a pinched expression, heartfelt speech or laugh line that isn't at least partly sold, even if the stunted-male psychologizing at the expense of the under-written women grows tiresome. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenSep 12, 2013
Behind the clunky machinery is a lyrical meditation on life, death, heroism, regret and forgiveness written in a florid style that might be described as Tennessee Williams on testosterone. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnAug 2, 2013
This tame exercise never quite jives and sometimes just bombs with one-note melodrama, but always maintains Thornton's conviction about the material. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireSep 13, 2013
Feels more like a collection of interrelated short stories cobbled into an flavorful but ultimately unwieldy narrative. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 12, 2013
Self-indulgent, heavy-handed and lumbering, Jayne Mansfield's Car is not a wreck, but it's certainly a vehicle for boredom. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineBill WeberSep 10, 2013
Billy Bob Thornton's ensemble Southern family dramedy fails to subvert its cutesy formula often enough. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNick SchagerSep 11, 2013
Characters scream, throw glasses, screw, and strip nude for the self-gratifying viewing pleasure of others, but Jayne Mansfield’s Car never musters up even the faintest trace of Tennessee Williams-style hothouse drama. Read full review
40
Time OutSam AdamsSep 10, 2013
There’s ambition here, but little in the way of insight or genuine feeling — just a heavy-handed thesis and some extraneous Southern eccentricity. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangAug 2, 2013
A fine cast can only do so much with the script’s pileup of generational conflict and long-winded introspection, resulting in a willfully out-of-step picture. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickSep 30, 2013
Overall, the rambling Jayne Mansfield’s Car is almost as big a wreck as its namesake. Read full review
30
Village VoiceChuck WilsonSep 17, 2013
Although Thornton and co-writer Tom Epperson are clearly trying to get to some essential truth about the ways in which machismo hinders love, their insights are scattered and pedestrian. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisSep 11, 2013
The handful of redeeming moments in Jayne Mansfield’s Car belong to Duvall in the role of a septuagenarian who finds himself more and more at odds with a changing world. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 2, 2013
Thematically diffuse, tonally inconsistent and blighted by an inauthentic feel for its story’s time and place, it sits awkwardly between sober human drama and lighter dysfunctional-family turf, constantly striving for unearned emotions. Read full review
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