My Best Friend
IFC Films | Release Date: July 13, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatJames Wegg
More a celebration of movement and music than a parable for our over-communicative, friend-lite, acquaintance-rich society. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Unexpectedly touching -- odd-couple buddy comedy. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
An unlikely comedy charmer. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
A droll, poignant comedy enlivened by two terrific performances. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The film unfolds easily, with affection for the man no one likes, and at 95 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Leconte's writing is tight and nimble, and while the tests of the duo's friendship are facile, under the circumstances, they make sense. The bond between Francois and Bruno approximates the real thing; Leconte seems to be arguing that you can grow a flower from fake soil. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
My Best Friend, not surprisingly, is about what it means to have friends - and not to have them, to be alone. It's about connection, about trust and vulnerability. That Leconte's little film is a mild-mannered farce, makes the heartache funny, but really, this is serious stuff. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Tries less to dazzle you than reel you in with competence and restraint. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Along the way, My Best Friend offers insights into the emotional and psychological components of both friendliness and friendship. They're not synonymous, though both have value. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie is full of holes - it lacks the precision and verve of a Francis Veber farce like "The Dinner Game" - but the two actors brew up a sane kind of comedy from their fractious rapport. Read full review
70
VarietyRobert Koehler
Well-turned adult comedy. Read full review
70
Village VoiceElla Taylor
Light, airy, and sweet, Patrice Leconte's latest comedy swings his favorite premise--fruitful encounters between opposites--away from romance and into the wistful hunger for friendship in a careerist world. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Terrifically acted, reassuringly formulaic, and moderately amusing. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Too serious to be an out-and-out comedy, too funny not to be one, My Best Friend is a lot easier to enjoy than to classify. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
A comforting, sentimental tale of a kind that would be insufferably maudlin if made in Hollywood and unbearably affectless if it showed up at Sundance. Somehow it’s easier to take in French. Read full review
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Leconte is always a deliriously clever director; his "Ridicule" and his "The Girl on the Bridge" stand out as vivid films on subjects no one in America would even consider. Possibly he's trying too hard here to be liked, just like Francois. But as long as he's merciless, he's great fun. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Patrice Leconte's new film, My Best Friend, is probably his lightest and sweetest to date. Fans of his serious historical dramas ("Ridicule") or raucous farces ("Les Bronzes") may be disappointed, but others should find it a reasonably enjoyable feel-good comedy. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Mildly entertaining trifle. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Formulaic but entertaining, My Best Friend climaxes with a lengthy, surprisingly heartfelt sequence set on the French version of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire." Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
For all its silliness and negligibility--a finale involving the Parisian "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" is one of its sillier, more negligible elements--My Best Friend is an amusing reinvention of "The Odd Couple." Read full review
63
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
Although Leconte allows for a certain warmth to run through the film, he thankfully stays away from sentimentality. Therein lays the charm. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The prolific Patrice Leconte takes a break from mythic, life-and-death scenarios with My Best Friend, a sitcom that threatens to take a rockier emotional path before swerving back into the comfy zone. It’s better when it’s threatening, but Leconte knows his audience. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Not a bad film and veteran star Daniel Auteuil makes any film he inhabits an interesting place to visit. Perversely, its tissue-thin substance may even make the comedy more commercial in North America than such films of his as "Monsieur Hire" and "Ridicule." Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Patrice Leconte has directed excellent serious films such as "Monsieur Hire" and "Man on the Train," but when it comes to humor he loses his bearings. His latest attempt at seriocomedy, My Best Friend, is a premise in search of a film. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
The film's broad attempts at humour are all mouldy bits from Hollywood films. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
By the time director Patrice Leconte arrives at his predictable climax and conventional moral, this lethargic French comedy may not have any friends either. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
If sex, gangsters, and killing Nazis are three of the most enlivening topics in the movies, then let us count friendship as one of the most tiresome, right up there with grooming horses and sharing for sheer thrills. Read full review
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