When Will I Be Loved
IFC Films | Release Date: September 10, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
39
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
9
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Campbell's performance is carnal, verbally facile, physically uninhibited and charged with intelligence. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The movie morphs into a deconstructed remake of "Indecent Exposure" and it's downright riveting, with Campbell doing her best acting to date. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Far from a complete success: It takes too long to get to its central premise and, once there, too often meanders away from it. But Campbell is close to astonishing whenever she's onscreen. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Campbell and her character are willing to take chances. But Toback's tangled noirish plot, with Vera as a post-feminist femme fatale, isn't particularly clever or original. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
More wacky than wack. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A ripe psychosexual compost heap of a drama that emits a provocative scent of rot and nonsense. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Beyond the "hell hath no fury" angle that overlays the story, When Will I Be Loved amounts to nothing more than another repository for kinky Tobackisms: Seen one (and the one to see remains 1978's Fingers), seen them all. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The structure of When Will I Be Loved seems deliberately flimsy, and many of its details don't add up. But as a contemporary fable about getting and spending in the new gilded age, When Will I Be Loved strikes a chord that echoes. Read full review
50
VarietyRobert Koehler
Campbell's performance is attuned to the extremes of unnerving calm and intensely erotic; unlike the pic, she pulls it off. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
With its improvisatory tone and loose, rambling structure, which often approaches a total breakdown of coherence, the story takes about half an hour to emerge. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A slim idea for a pulp-fiction short story padded out to 81 minutes with random encounters and celebrity sightings. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
In much the same way that Godard used heroines like Anna Karina or Bardot, Toback showcases Campbell's face as a placard of unknowability--a quality he recognizes as inherently feminine. The (inadvertent) question we are left with is, How much is there to know about her anyway? Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Another art film that's more pretentious than it needs to be. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Toback is a smart guy with kinky tastes who has nothing left but to tempt actors into performing in his sex fantasies. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Though once capable of writing distinct characters, Toback now populates his pictures with one-dimensional conceits who all talk like undereducated hustlers, from college professors to bottom feeders and international lions of business. Read full review
30
Film ThreatChristopher Zinsli
Something in Toback’s approach to the subject of sex, somehow both lecherous and detached, makes it tough to get a handle on the film. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
It's unfortunate that, nudity and all, this is one of Toback's absolute worst efforts. Read full review
30
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Collapses under the weight of its own pretension, a victim of misogyny trying to pass itself off as female sexual empowerment. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Slapdash plot, paper-thin characters, misogynist undertones, and mechanical crosscutting are all soft-core standbys. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
When Will I Be Loved would rate no stars except for Campbell's brave, totally committed performance -- which deserves a far better movie than this. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The whole enterprise is a colossal waste of everyone's time. Read full review
20
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
It's trivial and narcissistic and ultimately rather sordid. Read full review
12
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Most atrocious movies build into their badness, as lacks of talent, ideas, self-confidence, or a total hatred of an audience, are revealed. This one gets it out of the way up front and never looks back. Read full review
10
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Toback has hit a new low. The candor and shrugging good humor Toback, at his best, used to show has been replaced by a repellent slurpiness: The whole picture seems coated with a slimy sheen of drool. Read full review
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