The Truth About Emanuel
Tribeca Film | Release Date: January 10, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
10
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Los Angeles TimesAnnlee EllingsonJan 9, 2014
Writer-director Francesca Gregorini builds unbearable tension into scenes that otherwise risk tilting toward melodrama and brings the eye of a fashion photographer to the film's hallucinatory dream sequences. Read full review
70
Village VoiceChris PackhamJan 7, 2014
Despite the psychological extremes, writer-director Francesca Gregorini presents her characters as recognizably human balls of complexity, nudging but never forcing them toward a sad, beautiful conclusion. Read full review
60
Total FilmSimon KinnearDec 14, 2014
Francesca Gregorini’s film stands or falls on a central mystery as silly as it is surreal. Fair play to Gregorini, though, for avoiding the temptation to deliver an outré slice of suburban Gothic; by framing events as melodrama, she can better examine themes of grief and motherhood. Read full review
60
NPRElla TaylorJan 10, 2014
Despite some very welcome black comedy — Jimmi Simpson appears delightfully, but too briefly, as a passive-aggressive co-worker who threatens to unravel the cocoon of delusion in which Emanuel has wrapped herself — the movie, trapped in the weeds of self-pity and skin-deep badassery, never quite earns the sympathy it so strenuously solicits. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweNov 6, 2013
Although Gregorini is very clear on where her lead characters are coming from, it’s where they’re headed that remains entirely vague, an oversight that leaves them unfortunately adrift. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirJan 9, 2014
The film has an odd and striking energy, and the chemistry between Scodelario and Biel has an electrical charge to it. There are a couple of genuinely creepy moments, and Gregorini keeps us on an emotional knife edge. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJan 7, 2014
They waste this cast and these characters on a story so conventional, so neatly wrapped up in the finale, that the real mystery is how Gregorini and co-writer Sarah Thorpe didn’t see that. Read full review
50
The DissolveMike D'AngeloNov 25, 2013
With a radically different tone and less naturalistic performances, The Truth About Emanuel might conceivably have worked. Gregorini didn’t commit to the synthetic; paradoxically, that’s what makes the film feel false. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJan 8, 2014
Unable to create emotional tension, it instead opts for obliqueness — which can be tantalizing, but only if there’s something worthwhile hidden underneath. In this case, there isn’t. Instead, the movie comes across as evasive, repetitive, and, eventually, more than a little dull. Read full review
42
The PlaylistCory EverettNov 6, 2013
There are shades of “Lars & the Real Girl” here, but where that film skewed towards dark comedy (which helped temper its outlandish premise), "Emanuel" is almost completely humorless. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJan 10, 2014
The most startling truth is about Emanuel is that she's a rather ordinary teen in a rather ordinary movie. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis HarveyNov 6, 2013
Played flatly head-on with some poetic pretensions, the concept never becomes particularly credible or appealing. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJan 10, 2014
Writer-director Francesca Gregorini's film just feels tonally off like that most of the time, and the inclusion of magical realism elements — while attractively photographed — only muddle matters further. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandJan 10, 2014
It's highly doubtful that you'll grasp even a little of The Truth About Emanuel after seeing this film. It's not so much a thriller as it is a ride on a runaway crazy train. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJan 9, 2014
The arsenal is empty, and there’s nowhere for The Truth About Emanuel to go except — unfortunately — downhill. Read full review
30
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJan 9, 2014
The film never finds its dramatic footing. Nor, sadly, its common sense. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithJan 10, 2014
A film so self-serious that it demands to be remade as a Seth MacFarlane farce, The Truth About Emanuel mixes the ludicrous and the pretentious in a story about mommy issues gone wild. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineTomas HachardJan 8, 2014
What's missing, in the end, is any provocative or poignant insights into the "truth" about Emanuel; all we get are vague hints. Read full review
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