The Good Heart
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: April 30, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
40
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
12
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
Here, the 36-year-old filmmaker is playing around with drama and comedy. And if you're in the mood for a splash of dark drama, a bit of humor, very dry, on the rocks, with a twist, this will come close to satisfying. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The Big Apple of this evanescent tone poem is an invented nocturnal landscape featuring speechifying eccentrics and absurdist moments that feel northern European in sensibility. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazinePete Hammond
Odd but endearing, The Good Heart has just exactly that--a good heart--mixed with a simplistic story that comes recommended as a showcase for two fine actors at the top of their game. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
The Good Heart dilutes Cox’s gravitas with quirk. Read full review
60
MovielineMichelle Orange
Kári relies too heavily on the fleeting rewards of situation for the film to come together as an involving story. Read full review
50
ObserverRex Reed
One of the least likable characters (Cox) in recent memory--irascible, but with moments of real tenderness--he’s the reason this strange movie takes on a perverse charm that is uniquely its own. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
The movie begins to wear out its welcome even before a conclusion of breathtaking corniness. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
As Lucas’s girlfriend April, Isild Le Besco brings a sprig of sunshine into the film’s fetid hollows. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Cox has some wonderfully funny moments, but both actors are playing heavily to type. Read full review
46
NPRIan Buckwalter
The movie's two bright spots are Cox and Dano, who perform excellently despite the dull inevitabilities the script forces on them. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Cox’s character is a living, hissing embodiment of the idea that no good deed goes unpunished. As an actor stuck in a movie that wastes his talents, Cox can surely relate. Read full review
40
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A picture too simplistic and sentimental for art seekers and too rough for general audiences. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen Holden
No amount of splenetic ranting by Brian Cox, a wonderful actor, when given the right role, can salvage The Good Heart from terminal mawkishness. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Dagur Kari both wrote and directed, so he has no one else to blame for so little originality. Neither does his hard-working cast, all of whom deserve better. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The actors cast themselves adrift on the sinking vessel of this story and go down with the ship. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
As robust and clever an actor as Cox is, he can't make Jacques any less of a blowhard; Kari's wit simply doesn't come through in English, at least with this script. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeMark Feeney
Cox doesn’t so much chew the scenery as inhale it. Dano looks on in awe. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's a strange thing, this type of whimsy. Kari offers us ideas in place of characters, and yet he expects us to see through these ideas to the real-life conditions they represent - and then to respond to them in kind. Read full review
10
Village VoiceMelissa Anderson
A sloppy, desultory, depressive buddy comedy the color of beer-infused pee. Read full review
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