The Hedgehog
NeoClassics Films | Release Date: August 19, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
6
Negative:
2
Watch Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasAug 19, 2011
An exquisite, intimate film of restraint and delicacy. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 7, 2011
The Hedgehog sneaks up on you with its heartfelt storytelling and sophisticated wit. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniAug 25, 2011
The Hedgehog is full of heart, passion, and human longing - but also a good dose of existentialism. Think of it as Sartre's "Being and Nothingness"-meets-Dr. Seuss. Read full review
88
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreAug 17, 2011
The sweet, the comic and the tragic blend together most agreeably in the winsome French romance The Hedgehog. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 22, 2011
Igawa is almost a magical presence, projecting a calm in Ozu that is infectious. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanAug 19, 2011
Writer/director Mona Achache adapts Muriel Barbery's novel, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," loosely but skillfully, creating an intimate portrait that resounds with empathy. Comedy and tragedy are given equal respect, and even the quietest souls are valued. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen HoldenAug 18, 2011
At times The Hedgehog suggests a Gallic "Harold and Maude," with an intellectual gloss as it celebrates the life force passed from an older generation to a younger. But its concept of vitality isn't the popular cliché of kicking up your heels, breathing deeply and gorging on ice cream. It is an aesthete's ideal of pursuing moments of ecstatic perfection in art and companionship. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSep 7, 2011
This a movie with such a light, stylish touch, it makes no claims to profundity and is a sweetly hopeful experience. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanSep 1, 2011
The Hedgehog is a treat: a movie that's smart, grown-up, wry and deeply moving. Best of all, this is accomplished with the lightest of cinematic strokes. It sneaks up on you, without grandstanding, melodrama or outright jokes. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 19, 2011
This is a film that starts out cynically and gradually morphs into sentimentality of a particularly high gloss. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithAug 19, 2011
Gentle, tender and very French, The Hedgehog is cinematic poetry -- too bad about that prosaic plotting. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 5, 2011
A light but emotionally heady confection from France. Read full review
65
NPRMark JenkinsAug 18, 2011
Perhaps the ending worked better in the book, Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which sold more than a million copies in France. Certainly this adaptation, Mona Achache's directorial debut, is a very bookish movie. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeMark FeeneySep 1, 2011
Achache's direction is deft and assured. She lends the film a nice, easy rhythm that conceals the story's alternating whimsy and melodrama and almost compensates for them (almost). Read full review
60
EmpireDavid ParkinsonAug 29, 2011
Some acute performances do justice to the novel in a quirky adaptation of the novel. Balasko steals the show as the prickly concierge with the warmer side. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoAug 19, 2011
Contrary to all of my bitter nudging, I found both sweet and charming. It's just me: I hate precocious children. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterBernard BesserglikAug 17, 2011
Although the conceit of an ever-so-erudite child palling around with an exceedingly wise concierge might be workable in a novel, cinema tends to realism, and Achache is too much of a novice to bring it off. The cuteness grates, and the setups and philosophizing are generally unconvincing. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonAug 16, 2011
Watching Balasko, a veteran actor-writer-director in thick-browed, frumped-up drag, sitting at her kitchen table reading Tolstoy and nibbling on dark chocolate with a cat in her lap, is one of The Hedgehog's purest delights. At the very least, it provides relief from the prating of that junior wisenheimer. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderIgnatiy VishnevetskySep 8, 2011
First-time director Mona Achache mixes feel-good platitudes with quirky conceits (including animated interludes and narration by an 11-year old girl) to put across some hoary old notions about bourgeois neuroticism and hypocrisy. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearAug 16, 2011
Mona Achache's character study plays like a Gallic version of a Sundance flick, complete with on-the-nose references - Igawa's character is named Mr. Ozu - and just enough offbeat touches to make it seem more deep than it actually is. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineNick SchagerAug 16, 2011
The Hedgehog ultimately illuminates only the continued lameness of employing out-of-leftfield tragedy for cheap bathos. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 25, 2011
Here Balasko, best known as a comedian, is particularly satisfying. But the reward is too small on the investment, and the film's resolution is downright irritating - not just a waste of time, but a waste of time with attitude. Read full review
More From This Movie

64 Critic Reviews

7.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL