Promised Land
Focus Features | Release Date: December 28, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
19
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanJan 2, 2013
Urgent, heartfelt, and not-quite-as-predictable-as-you-think environmental rabble-rouser. Read full review
80
NPRJeannette CatsoulisDec 27, 2012
Though the film eventually caves to sentiment and stereotype, its alert performances and muted rhythms offer much to enjoy in the interim. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 27, 2012
Krasinki's soft-sell script, lets the movie's ideas get absorbed without grandstanding or pretension. Its issues go down with a smile and common sense, which turns out to be exactly the right formula. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJan 10, 2013
Van Sant moves easily from dreamy, impressionistic narratives to conventional, less stylized storytelling, and he does the latter job well in Promised Land. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJan 4, 2013
The characters drive this story, not ideology. Damon and McDormand are terrific as co-workers seeking the same goal, though they see their work from different points of view. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigJan 3, 2013
Promised Land is an involving and timely tale that explores the changing nature and complex challenges of rural life. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 28, 2012
Promised Land is a fine place to start appreciating Matt Damon, who always makes it seem as if everybody else is acting and he's just going through the movie being natural. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanDec 27, 2012
The rhetorically stacked deck, and some unconvincing third-act plot twists, get in the way of this movie's efforts to reach the cinematic promised land of true greatness. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 27, 2012
Director Gus Van Sant finds the human side of a knotty issue. No polemics. Just the face of a new America in crisis. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJan 4, 2013
The film has lots of small moments that make it a worthy effort. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 4, 2013
Promised Land is more effective as an anti-fracking screed than as a drama. Damon has his low-key charisma and Van Sant captures the enraged anomie of the community, but, except for one big plot twist, everything in this film is telegraphed from the first frame. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnDec 6, 2012
Promised Land can't help but preach its cause in obvious ways that continually hold back an otherwise well-acted, swiftly paced drama. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJan 30, 2013
Damon the Oscar-winning writer does something nobody else in Hollywood would – write a dumb character for Matt Damon to play. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJan 4, 2013
Because he's the protagonist of the movie and played by the likable Matt Damon, we keep an open mind, but Promised Land is morally ambiguous to a fault. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 27, 2012
It's a fine line between interesting characters and "Northern Exposure" quirk, but the movie mostly stays on the right side of it. Read full review
60
The GuardianAndrew PulverFeb 9, 2013
Promised Land seems to lose its nerve a little politically: as it goes on, you realise it isn't about fracking at all, but a tract on machiavellian corporate behaviour and their employees' self-deception. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJan 4, 2013
The ultimate goal of a film like this, of course, is to change minds. As compelling a case as it builds, Promised Land isn't quite persuasive enough to be able to promise to do that. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 7, 2012
Promised Land presents its environmental concerns in a clear, upfront manner but hits some narrative and character bumps in the second half that weaken the impact of this fundamentally gentle, sympathetic work. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid DenbyJan 13, 2013
Like so many earnestly conceived morality tales, Promised Land is built around a man's quandaries. Any actor less skilled and sympathetic than Damon might have betrayed the material into obviousness. [14 Jan. 2013, p.78]
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJan 4, 2013
Promised Land is a low-budget effort, far too awkward and contrived a drama to change many hearts and minds. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJan 3, 2013
There's also reason to worry when a simplistic movie like this one takes on an issue of overarching importance to the nation's future. The challenges presented by fracking are immense, and Capra-esque nostalgia isn't helpful. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 28, 2012
Unfortunately, much of what's good about Promised Land is easily forgotten as a result of the preachy, impossible-to-swallow final 15 minutes in which the protagonist is subjected to character assassination, the screenplay turns into a sermon, and narrative intelligence is discarded in favor of a message. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 28, 2012
Despite their Everyman appeal, Damon and Krasinski don't create much by way of emotional investment, instead becoming mirror images of their most mild-mannered, white-bread selves. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 27, 2012
It's got a strong cast and an intriguing premise that has the added bonus of real-world relevance. But, good intentions and good work aside, the film flounders before it reaches its conclusion. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 27, 2012
Promised Land is a frustrating film to watch. It should be better than this, smarter than this. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 27, 2012
An earnest attempt, sometimes effective, sometimes clumsy, to dramatize the central arguments about fracking and its impact. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 27, 2012
More an argument than a fully fleshed-out drama ... The script is unconvincing; two key narrative twists, one related to the other, are deeply hokey. Read full review
50
Village VoiceNick PinkertonDec 27, 2012
Van Sant knows how to display the common touch, but the movie is a hard sell whose ending is never in doubt. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasDec 27, 2012
No one seems to recognize the irony of making a film about corporate rigging that is itself outrageously rigged. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangDec 6, 2012
By manipulating their story to advance the cynical notion that you really can't trust anyone, the filmmakers inadvertently beg the question why their own motives should be so above suspicion. Read full review
50
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezDec 6, 2012
It's Middle America vs. big bad corporate America, and while the (not so) "bad guy" predictably finds salvation in salt-of-the-earth people, Promised Land often leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriDec 31, 2012
It collapses on all fronts, delivering hot-button platitudes and just-add-water character development. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichDec 27, 2012
Yet worst of all is the way the film ultimately reveals its humanistic setup as a lazy pretext to redeem Damon's big-business apologist through the healing power of nature. He's not the only one who should be put out to pasture. Read full review
40
TimeRichard CorlissDec 27, 2012
Left-wingers in the mainstream media - by which I mean me - are supposed to lap up a movie that plays to our farm-loving, tree-hugging prejudices. But even we know that well-meaning does not automatically equal good movie. Some organic life is needed. And the only crop Promised Land harvests is Capra Corn. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithDec 28, 2012
Much has been made of the fact that Promised Land was partly funded by the enemies of our domestic gas industry - the foreign oil nabobs in the United Arab Emirates. But the film gets so cheesy that I suspect it was also secretly funded by Velveeta. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezDec 5, 2012
Gus Van Sant's new film offends for how it views the struggles of the landowners at the heart of its story as subservient to their oppressor's triumph of the spirit. Read full review
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