ma ma
Oscilloscope | Release Date: May 20, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
31
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
6
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaMay 26, 2016
For all its missteps and machinations, the film mostly achieves its goals. In other words, have some Kleenex ready at the theater. Read full review
67
The Film StageJohn FinkMay 12, 2016
The craft is quite admirable, while the elements feel a bit recycled. Read full review
60
CineVueAllie GemmillJun 23, 2016
Heartstrings, prepared to be tugged at vigorously. Ma Ma is a quintessential tear-jerking melodrama that leans into its genre conventions heavily while still keeping an airy beauty to its characters and vision. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayMay 18, 2016
Ma Ma’s corny simplicity makes its many flourishes look excessive, and even desperate. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaMay 20, 2016
More important than the washed-out blue-tinged rooms, bleached white interiors and sun-blasted sea and sand is Cruz, who single-handedly breathes a sense of genuineness into this maudlin exercise even if she can’t cure all of its flaws. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedMay 18, 2016
A sensitive career-changing performance by luminous Penélope Cruz dominates the Spanish film Ma Ma, but there’s no escaping the fact that the rest of it is not much more than a dreary, tear-stained soap opera. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 18, 2016
Cruz is radiant in her role, finding inner strength even when the script pushes Magda towards blind hope, and finding pain even when Medem insists that cancer hits with all the force of a bad night's sleep. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeJun 20, 2016
Cruz has enough charm to melt a glacier, but she can’t rescue the shamelessly sentimental script by director Julio Medem (‘Sex and Lucia’). Ma Ma is going for the heartstrings, but don’t bother taking tissues. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJun 2, 2016
Eventually, the film muddles its way into a self-indulgent, overlong mess, complete with a flowerlike beating heart, a miraculous new life and a lot of soccer. Long before anyone in Ma Ma expires, the movie does. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 26, 2016
The model here may be the florid, female-centered movies of Douglas Sirk, but the effect is as poetic and inspiring as a waiting-room pamphlet. Read full review
30
The New York TimesAndy WebsterMay 19, 2016
Penélope Cruz is an Oscar-winning actress we don’t see often enough in prominent leading roles. So how disappointing to find her having to carry Julio Medem’s florid Ma Ma, a melodrama only glancing at profundity. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterJonathan HollandMay 17, 2016
Cruz’s aces performance apart, very little about this extremely disappointing film feels real, and some of it is risible. Read full review
30
Screen DailyAllan HunterMay 17, 2016
There is an undeniable cheesiness to the closing stage of ma ma that makes it hard to take entirely seriously. Read full review
30
VarietyDennis HarveyMay 17, 2016
Julio Medem’s film is a smiling-through-tears saga whose generally tasteful execution can’t ultimately salvage a whopping load of maudlin contrivance, all designed to burnish the halo around St. Penelope. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisJun 2, 2016
A wannabe weepie about a woman diagnosed with breast cancer, is Spain’s equivalent of a Lifetime movie, but it’s often lifeless, even with a decent performance by Penélope Cruz. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 23, 2016
Julio Medem's film has enough hanky-courting plot mechanics for three remakes of Beaches. Read full review
0
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthMay 17, 2016
Falls flat on its face thanks to a severe lack of self-awareness and an air of dramatic self-importance. Read full review
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