Moonlight Mile
Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: September 27, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Not many movies know that truth. Moonlight Mile is based on it. Read full review
90
Washington PostStaff (Not credited)
It's a combination of good story, nice moments and appealing texture. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Quirkily likable comedy-drama about a family trying to coping with loss, contains three of the best performances you're likely to see in an American movie this year. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A dazzling true-life comedy that might be the funniest movie about grief ever made. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Both funny and telling about the messy passages of grief. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The first half of Moonlight Mile feels like the runaway trailer for a movie that can't wait to jerk your tears. But to quote Joe in a moment of epiphany, there's a ''truth enema'' out there, and, boy, it really brings this movie around. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Understands that extreme feelings bring out weird reactions. Tension and sadness will occasionally be interrupted by humor -- even slapstick.
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The film drips with honest emotion and confusion. Read full review
70
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Though its conclusion is too tidily therapeutic, and though elements of its story strain credibility, Moonlight Mile has an understated, lived-in quality and a wry, unforced sense of the absurd. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Hoffman and Sarandon work well together, and Gyllenhaal, who's carved out a niche for himself as the new face of internalized conflict, fits nicely into a role Hoffman would have made a meal of 30 years ago. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineSteve Simels
An occasionally surreal meditation on coping with loss, and a love story with a dark side the size of Montana. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Corliss
The film is full of sharp acting and home truths, but its ambition to be different finally surrenders to its need to be loved. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
An admirable effort, but too many words, words, and more words, and not enough of the ache of that half-smile. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Inside Moonlight Mile, an honest and heartbreakingly true movie is struggling to get out. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Jake Gyllenhaal is 21 and looks as though he's going on 16. This is not a problem for films like "Lovely & Amazing" and "The Good Girl"-- It is a problem in Moonlight Mile, where he plays a grown man recovering from the murder of his fiancée. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Occasionally feels like a Neil Simon rewrite of "In the Bedroom," as it see-saws between hard truths and quirky humour. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Gyllenhaal, in the pivotal role, brings a scruffy, boyish charm to the proceedings, but his big scenes with Hoffman and Sarandon are one-sided - he's not in the same league, and comes off as a bit of a cipher. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
The movie doesn't really jell. Glossy, good-looking and well-produced, it affects you and even sometimes moves you, but it doesn't really convincingly connect. Read full review
60
New Times (L.A.)Jean Oppenheimer
The film takes an incredibly wrong turn when it shifts to the courtroom trial -- It all but kills any goodwill Silberling has engendered up to this point.
60
Village VoiceMark Holcomb
All the shell-shocked wryness, irredeemable remorse, and unaccountable will to survive that the movie attempts to embody are realized in Gyllenhaal, and the actor makes it possible to root for Moonlight Mile despite its flaws. Read full review
60
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
An emotionally honest film, but it would have been far more affecting if it felt more true to life. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
What's on screen is too honest and from the heart to totally dismiss but too slick and contrived to completely embrace. This is a film that cares about genuine emotion but also wants to tame it, to tidy it up and keep it confined to quarters. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
A sentimental, feel-good look at a family in mourning, but Jake Gyllenhaal rises above the clichéd script with a brilliantly creative performance. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
In his determination to lighten the heavy subject matter, Silberling also, to a certain extent, trivializes the movie with too many nervous gags and pratfalls: to the point where his heartfelt drama comes perilously close to tasteless comedy. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
In ''Ordinary People,'' at least one character -- Mary Tyler Moore's -- had to fall so that the others could survive. In Moonlight Mile, no one gets shut out of the hug cycle. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Moonlight Mile leavens the mood occasionally, but it cheapens things by insisting that everybody onscreen and in the audience leavethe theater smiling.
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A movie about grief for people who don't want to be upset too badly. It's a half-a-hankie tearjerker, a meek, polite weepie. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Eloquent acting -- in fits and starts -- can't make up for the movie's glib, off-putting calculations.
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Silberling has the nerve to play it for laughs -- This is clearly an actor's movie, but only Sarandon and Holly Hunter (as the attorney prosecuting the murderer) rise to the occasion. Read full review
50
VarietyRobert Koehler
A movie at war with itself -- tuned into its characters' vicissitudes one moment, stumbling with awkward stabs at goofiness the next. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
Too predictable and too self-conscious to reach a level of high drama. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
An insult to anyone who has tragically and unexpectedly lost a loved-one in a similar manner. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
This movie has promising ingredients. But you'll leave wanting much, much more. Read full review
10
SlateDavid Edelstein
I'm at a loss to account for how OFF this film is -- how a movie can seem so conscientiously earnest yet so creepily exploitive. It's like a Christmas stocking over a crematory. Read full review
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