Virginia
Entertainment One | Release Date: May 18, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
33
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
9
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
58
The A.V. ClubSam AdamsMay 25, 2012
Black seems to be aiming for some sort of loopy fantasia, a tragic fable about struggling with difference in the small-town South, but he's got more half-finished ideas than he can handle. Read full review
50
MovielineAlison WillmoreMay 20, 2012
Virginia is like a box full of someone's long ago summer vacation keepsakes: pretty, but representative of memories and meaning no one else will be able to grasp. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickMay 18, 2012
Black loses control of Virginia as it lurches from political satire to unintended black comedy to mom-and-son melodrama. But the performances and the movie's sheer crazy audacity make it watchable. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenMay 17, 2012
It's all rather wacky and hard to follow or fathom, although maybe that's attributable to Virginia's schizophrenia veering off on its delusional phase. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 7, 2012
A strong cast can't save Virginia. Read full review
40
NPRScott TobiasMay 22, 2012
Connelly, Harris and Amy Madigan, as Tipton's devastated wife, all do their best to bring a measure of soul to Black's creations, but there's something fundamentally synthetic about Virginia, which lays bare its influences without doing much to reanimate them. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 17, 2012
The movie as a whole falls victim to a dewy kind of Tennessee Williams-itis, as Black plops too many wanna-be, colorful twists - imminent illness, botched robberies, fake pregnancies - into what is at heart a gently heartbreaking rendering. Read full review
40
Time OutEric HynesMay 15, 2012
It also serves to undercut fine performances by Connelly and Harris, whose choices are constantly destabilized by scripted swings between comedy and drama, realism and fantasy, genuine catharsis and indie-film ornamentation. Black's overactive melodrama is more than a representation of schizophrenia; it's the embodiment of it. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 12, 2012
A scattershot Southern melodrama that can't decide what it's supposed to be. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoMay 14, 2012
Unfortunately, there's little sympathy granted to these people, and the revelation of their hidden vices comes across like an increasingly mean series of punchlines. Read full review
30
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 17, 2012
Virginia is a wildly unpredictable piece of work. Playing the kind of role that is often associated with Laura Dern, Ms. Connelly gives a brave, full-tilt performance that is true to the character but can't hold the movie together. Read full review
30
Village VoiceBenjamin MercerMay 15, 2012
A bonkers tragicomedy that blandly mocks the red-state family-values charade. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenMay 12, 2012
Presumably a glib attack on sanctimonious small-town religious hypocrisy informed by Black's own strict Mormon upbringing, the film is tonally all over the place, eventually settling in a rut that comes a lot closer to resembling bad camp than edgy satire. Read full review
10
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenMay 17, 2012
With its soft jabs at hypocrisy and band-aid use of voiceover narration, Virginia is an excruciatingly slow train wreck. Read full review
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