My Old Lady
Cohen Media Group | Release Date: September 10, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Arizona RepublicPenny WalkerSep 18, 2014
The film begins with upbeat music and what appears to be a comedy-of-errors setup, but it becomes so much more, bringing us through dark territory with wit, anger and grace, becoming in the end a much fuller tale for it. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 12, 2014
The material veers a bit too predictably from near farce to serioso dramatics but the trajectory here makes emotional sense. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoSep 11, 2014
My Old Lady is affecting, even if many of the revelations and high-voltage speeches occur at predictable moments. But if you can look past this formulaic side, it's a movie worth seeing. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennySep 11, 2014
My Old Lady is pretty compelling viewing, mostly thanks to Kline, who gives a career-high performance here. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 7, 2014
Kline remains a pleasure to watch, surviving the character's deepening self-pity and making his suspiciously unwriterly carelessness with words (he refers to the trophy head of a wild boar as a "cow") almost charming. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereOct 3, 2014
It’s all fun enough to watch for the sheer over-the-topness of the performances, and Horovitz does his level best at working around some heavy spatial limitations, but there’s no getting around the fact that, ultimately, My Old Lady feels as stubbornly stuck in that expansive and underlit apartment as Madame Girard herself, and you may find yourself bolting for a lungful of relief. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughSep 18, 2014
It’s like a Parisian variation on Nicole Holofcener’s “Please Give,” or the premise of another PBS Masterpiece Theater series with Smith. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 9, 2014
The venerable acting firm of Smith-Kline & Scott Thomas make certain that this Paris trip is anything but a waste. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenSep 9, 2014
As the truth tumbles out, the dialogue and the carefully timed revelations make My Old Lady seem increasingly stagy. But the performances go a long way toward camouflaging the screenplay’s clunky mechanics. Read full review
60
The DissolveJen ChaneySep 9, 2014
My Old Lady isn’t the tart slice of dessert that its initial scenes suggest it might be. In fact, it only becomes truly compelling in its second half, as Horovitz drives toward darker material and farther away from the light. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloSep 25, 2014
Apparently struggling to please two very different audiences at once, Horovitz seems to have little control over the material, ultimately wrapping things up with a neat little bow that makes a mockery of the preceding ugliness. Read full review
50
Washington PostStephanie MerrySep 18, 2014
Horovitz may have made a questionable decision in adapting this particular play for the screen, but his casting was flawless. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 8, 2014
Though Horovitz's directing is workmanlike solid, and while the movie has a certain charm that makes it easy to walk in the door, it gives you little reason to stay. Read full review
50
VarietyAndrew BarkerSep 7, 2014
Its translation from stage to screen looks to have been a bit rocky, and the film never manages to transcend its actors-workshop aura and develop into something deeper. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonDave CalhounNov 18, 2014
The cast fail to gel and the tone of the film sways uneasily between melodrama and something more gentle. It’s too twee and theatrical to take seriously. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisSep 17, 2014
It’s a pity party to which you’d like to RSVP an unequivocal “no.” Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 9, 2014
Awkwardly balanced between comedy and significance, with plotting that gets increasingly schematic and unconvincing, My Old Lady is bound and determined to get more serious than it is capable of sustaining. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAbby GarnettSep 9, 2014
It sounds like a recipe for comedy (and Kline seems to think so too, waltzing and prat-falling through Mathias's alcoholic foibles), but Horovitz's screenplay guns instead for an emotionally and financially tangled melodrama, and ends up feeling aggravatingly inconsistent. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianSep 8, 2014
Israel Horovitz's film is basically a three-character play without a single character you can believe in. Read full review
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