What Maisie Knew
Millennium Entertainment | Release Date: May 3, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 23, 2013
Who would have thought that one of the most provocative and affecting films made about the fallout from 21st century divorce would have emanated from a 19th century novel? Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 2, 2013
What Maisie Knew lays waste to the comforting dogma that children are naturally resilient, and that our casual, unthinking cruelty to them can be answered by guilty and belated displays of affection. It accomplishes this not by means of melodrama, but by a mixture of understatement and thriller-worthy suspense. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedApr 30, 2013
Acutely observed, subtly but sharply written and expertly acted. Read full review
90
The New YorkerDavid DenbyJun 3, 2013
What Maisie Knew sees things that most of us manage to hide. James might have been shocked by the movie's profane taunts, but he would have recognized the system of betrayals, large and small, that he dramatized so well. [27 May 2013, p.87]
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 16, 2013
This is a beautifully rendered film. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJun 12, 2013
The result is a film that deeply engages us on multiple levels. Not only do we wonder what Maisie knows and how she knows it, we want to get this seedling to a place where she won't have to be transplanted every day. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 23, 2013
What Maisie Knew flirts with sentimentality but mostly keeps it at bay until the very end, at which point the filmmakers and we realize the kid has probably earned it. Read full review
88
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 8, 2013
Young Onata Aprile makes Maisie a passive wonder, a sweetly poker-faced, nonjudgmental and hopeful child, even as she’s being ditched at bars, forgotten at school or passed back and forth like a prize, or a bad penny. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 3, 2013
The film stands quite well on its own. The directors have made the right, essential decision to make the movie almost entirely from Maisie’s point of view. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGabe ToroMay 3, 2013
The cumulative effect is dramatically effective to the point of being soul-crushing. Read full review
80
Total FilmJames MottramAug 24, 2013
Capturing the essence of the source novel, this is a superior adult drama. Harrowing, heartbreaking but utterly compelling. Read full review
80
The TelegraphDavid GrittenAug 22, 2013
Handsomely shot and stopping just short of cloying sentiment, this is an accomplished, engaging work. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeAug 21, 2013
This tense New York drama from the co-directors of Bee Season and The Deep End is sensitive and almost unwatchably perceptive about dysfunctional families – and it’s acted with knife-sharp precision. Read full review
80
EmpireAnna SmithAug 19, 2013
The young Aprile is a standout in a moving, hard-hitting and surprising adaptation of the Henry James novel. Read full review
80
TimeMary PolsJun 12, 2013
Some moviegoers may opt for an easier cinematic pleasure than this carefully crafted, discomforting look at familial misery in hyper drive, but it is the most provocative movie about parenting I’ve seen since "The Kids Are All Right." Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangJun 12, 2013
Anchored by five strong performances, including a piercing turn by Onata Aprile in the 6-year-old title role, this beautifully observed drama essentially strikes the same sad note for 98 minutes, though with enough sensitivity and emotional variation to make the experience cumulatively heartrending rather than merely aggravating. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirJun 12, 2013
It’s probably best to approach Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s intimate, unnerving and entirely addictive drama What Maisie Knew by not leaning too hard on its Henry James source material. Read full review
80
The GuardianHenry BarnesMar 7, 2013
The adults' behaviour is almost as confusing for us as it is for her. It's a neat trick that reminds us these weighty adult issues are both life-changing and, in the moment, somewhat insignificant to someone Maisie's age. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJul 10, 2013
It gives the illusion of a conclusion and cuts to black before it has to answer for how many more questions have been raised. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Staff (Not credited)Jun 12, 2013
For those who have read the book, this contemporary adaptation of a once avant-garde story feels exactly right. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJun 11, 2013
Some of the twists the film takes, particularly in its final third, strain the powers of belief, but the ending, thankfully, does not soft-pedal all that came before. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 24, 2013
Primarily, What Maisie Knew is a showcase for consistently superb performances that, while utterly grounded in their characters, succeed in keeping viewers off-balance as to who will do what, and when. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 2, 2013
Cartwright, find something sadly timeless in a child torn apart in a custody battle that no one wins, least of all the child. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJun 12, 2013
A broken-family melodrama with a minimum of histrionics, Scott McGehee's and David Siegel's What Maisie Knew begins from scenes that will be familiar to most viewers who've witnessed a custody battle. Things get pretty orchestrated from that familiar scenario onward, but never to the point of unbelievability. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghMay 23, 2013
The film wraps up too neatly to be believed, not leaving questions unanswered so much as failing to ask them. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 3, 2013
The film is wrenching all the same, and subtle enough in its portrait of the four major grown-up characters to qualify as Jamesian. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubSam AdamsMay 1, 2013
If the idea is for the audience to feel similarly yanked around, then What Maisie Knew succeeds wildly, but it fails to bring much insight to what essentially amounts to a massive parental guilt trip. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlApr 30, 2013
The film is admirably committed to simulating the messy experience of life as a real Maisie might live it. But sometimes, as she's tuckered out on her exquisite linens beneath gorgeous exposed brick and shelves of handcrafted toys, Maisie's world feels easier to admire than it is to worry over. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 30, 2013
Young Aprile is a real find, investing what might have been a symbolic part with a visible sense of craft and patience (this isn’t merely cute-kid cinema), but it would be a shame not to mention the risks taken by Moore and Coogan, pushing difficult parts into daring registers of irresponsibility. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithMay 2, 2013
This is a fine idea for a PSA TV commercial, but (a) they already did it back in the ’70s and (b) it goes on well past the 30-second mark. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 1, 2013
In this bleak indie bummer that confuses hopelessness with depth, they're really nothing more than selfish, one-dimensional monsters. Maisie's better off without them. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineChris CabinApr 27, 2013
David Siegel and Scott McGehee's film renders the rhapsodic Henry James novel of the same name into an abhorrent slice of tasteless familial drama. Read full review
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