The Guys
Focus Features | Release Date: December 13, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Anthony LaPaglia and Sigourney Weaver are superb in this moving adaptation of the post-Sept. 11 play. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
A hushed and powerful piece. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyDaniel Fienberg
The Australian actor taps into something miraculous here -- LaPaglia's ability to convey grief and hope works with Weaver's sensitive reactions to make this a two-actor master class. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Since the virtues of heroism and decency it celebrates are universal, I hope it doesn't get absorbed into the dubious agitprop of American exceptionalism. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The Guys is less a tearing open of old wounds than a balm to be applied over them. It doesn't wallow. It doesn't weep. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
This is a superb theatrical situation, and you have two great performers doing the emoting. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The scenes between LaPaglia and Weaver, directed and played with a straightforward austerity that occasionally moved me to tears, make up for every one of The Guys flaws. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
So emotionally overwhelming that its aesthetics seem almost beside the point. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Short without feeling scant. That's how big its sense of grief is. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
A devastatingly straightforward chamber piece that goes straight to the heart of what this city was feeling in the days right after Sept. 11. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The film is just two people talking, but director Jim Simpson finds its grieving heart. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A simple, eloquent drama. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Simply and eloquently articulates the tangled feelings of particular New Yorkers deeply touched by an unprecedented tragedy. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis Harvey
An adept if necessarily limited translation of uncinematic material, The Guys retains the potency of its stage original as a poignant, ingeniously simple tribute to firefighters lost in the World Trade Center disaster. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A small, heartfelt film. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The powerful two-person drama gets watered down by documentary-style footage and voice-overs. But it's worth seeing just for Weaver and LaPaglia. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
A very well-meaning movie, and it will stand in future years as an eloquent memorial to the World Trade Center tragedy. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
There's an inherent distance between movies and their audiences that -- combined with the distance between 9/11 and today's opening of the film -- The Guys can't bridge. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
In spite of some affecting moments, the film never quite works. It's too theatrical, perhaps unavoidably. Read full review
40
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Nelson's writing, as arranged by Simpson, adds absolutely nothing to our experience of September 11. Read full review
40
The New York TimesDana Stevens
What limits The Guys -- what makes it an exercise in art therapy rather than a work of art -- is its decorous refusal to probe deeply into its characters, or to exploit any of the dramatic potential their accidental relationship might contain. Read full review
30
Village VoiceDennis Lim
Watching the film is like reading a Times Portrait of Grief that keeps shifting focus to the journalist who wrote it. Read full review
20
Washington PostStephen Hunter
An Upper West Sidey exercise in narcissism and self-congratulation disguised as a tribute. Read full review
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