This Must Be the Place
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: November 2, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
9
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 12, 2012
Sean Penn makes a striking screen presence in This Must Be the Place, a smart, funny and original road movie by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino ("Il Divo"). Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 1, 2012
Maybe, beneath the stylistic flourishes and bursts of operatic emotion, it is a simple story of psychological struggle, about a man in midlife reckoning with the damage of his past. But to settle on that interpretation is to deny or discount the splendid strangeness of Mr. Sorrentino's vision - and also, therefore, of the curious corners of reality he discovers along the way. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 14, 2012
Few actors have played a wider variety of characters, and even fewer have done it without making it seem like a stunt. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierOct 28, 2012
The film believes in maturity, but only as a freely continual process of acceptance. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubMike D AngeloOct 31, 2012
This Must Be The Place practically dares viewers not to find it ridiculous, but few will accept the challenge. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 15, 2012
It's hard to imagine sitting through the film without Penn in the role of Cheyenne. But there he is, in all his intense, bizarre glory, almost daring us to come along for the ride and rewarding us with a compelling trip when we accept. Read full review
80
Village VoiceChris PackhamNov 1, 2012
Sorrentino's languorous photography, understated humor, and quiet but profound dramatic reveals coil together into something organic, whole, and achingly sweet. Read full review
80
Total FilmAndrew LowryOct 27, 2012
Succeeding against the odds and adroitly blending its disparate elements, this is a fine entry into the Eurodirector-gawps-at-America subgenre. Read full review
80
VarietyJay WeissbergOct 27, 2012
Quirky, hilarious and moving, Sorrentino's first English-lingo production is a road trip of stunning scope yet deep intimacy, featuring an aged rock star-turned-Nazi hunter played by Sean Penn at his transformative best. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 14, 2012
Mixing faded rock glory with Nazi-hunting and American road-tripping creates an odd hybrid that is completely transfixing, although some viewers are likely to find this film an awkward mishmash. The drama, however, is consistently offset by comic underpinnings, which are well-played by the actors and seamlessly presented by Sorrentino. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 14, 2012
This Must Be the Place is a movie existing in a zonked-out realm where reality smashes head-on with a train-wreck hero too strange to be real, unless you're the love child of Ozzy Osbourne and the Cure's Robert Smith. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 8, 2012
This isn't a great movie, but it is a special one. And Penn is something to see. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 4, 2012
The director seems to be drawing a line from the horror of the war years to the infantilism of the Boomers and rock; the father lost his innocence, and the son froze his. Read full review
70
NPRMark JenkinsNov 1, 2012
This mashup of genres and themes doesn't entirely succeed, but it is warm, funny and ably crafted. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 27, 2012
This Must Be the Place is dazzling to behold, not least when our hero leaves Ireland. [29 Oct. & 5 Nov. 2012, p.128]
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 23, 2012
Penn has created a colorful tour guide, but in This Must Be the Place, there's no there there. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenNov 1, 2012
If the movie doesn't entirely get past its hard-to-buy premise, director Paolo Sorrentino does have the courage of his convictions, not just embracing every contradiction but spinning many of the story's contrivances into moments of strange, aching beauty. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichOct 31, 2012
The film's numerous idiosyncrasies - virtues at the outset - ultimately suffocate it. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondOct 27, 2012
With a sure-to-be-talked about performance by Sean Penn and the dueling themes of overcoming depression and revenge against Nazi atrocities, This Must Be The Place is anywhere BUT the place for moviegoers who aren't in the mood for something different. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie ErrigoOct 27, 2012
Determinedly quirky and cool, arresting and ultimately too baffling to be satisfying, although Penn is priceless. Cultdom beckons. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 27, 2012
The Holocaust material was not entirely successful, though certainly transmitted with absolute certainty and sincerity. This Must Be the Place is not my favourite of Sorrentino's films, but it certainly deserved inclusion at Cannes, and deserves to be watched for the glorious Byrne moments alone. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 27, 2012
Eccentric, misguided and occasionally charming and sweet, this curiosity item with Sean Penn in one of his nuttier performances is unlikely to be embraced critically or commercially. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 2, 2012
Sean Penn is one of those actors, like Nicolas Cage, who is best (sometimes worst) when he's over-the-top. Unlike Cage, Penn doesn't pour himself into dreadful commercial vehicles. No, his dreadful movies are usually not destined for the multiplex. Case in point: This Must Be the Place. Read full review
42
The PlaylistJames RocchiNov 1, 2012
Sorrentino's very title suggests someone who doesn't have the most well-defined sense of where they ultimately want to wind up; as goes the Talking Heads song, so goes the movie. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJan 11, 2013
There's no "place" in this place, no clear destination -- and no real payoff in a film that stands a cinematic curiosity but little more. Read full review
33
IndieWireEric KohnNov 1, 2012
Guided by an over-the-top Nazi hunter played by Judd Hirsch (clearly enjoying himself), Cheyenne begins a road trip through Middle American that goes nowhere, and Penn's mopey has-been routine starts to feel like a bad joke that just keeps getting worse. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 15, 2012
This Must Be the Place is as emotionally zonked-out as its protagonist, and just as difficult to warm up to. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 9, 2012
Worst of all, in promoting its hero's eccentric journey as a voyage of healing, the movie replaces emotional precision and intellectual honesty with syrupy sincerity and insistence. It turns boring and cute and begs us to love it. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 1, 2012
As juxtapositions go, regressed Goth rock star and Holocaust could hardly be more bizarre, and bizarre can be good when it's done deftly. In this case, however, it's done ponderously and sententiously. Read full review
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