Wish I Was Here
Focus Features | Release Date: July 18, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
16
Negative:
10
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJul 17, 2014
Even the most ardent fans of Braff’s first feature film, the charming Garden State, will struggle to warm up to this self-indulgent, uninvolving drama about an immature, almost-middle-aged guy trying to find himself with questions he should have had answers to long ago. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 16, 2014
Director/co-writer/actor Zach Braff’s Wish I Was Here is a precious and condescending exercise in self-indulgent pandering, featuring one of the whiniest lead characters in recent memory. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenJul 17, 2014
For a film that purports to be about the process of maturity and growth, it is woefully un-evolved, lacking in understanding and insight. Read full review
30
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJul 17, 2014
Wish I Was Here is so eager to please that you are never allowed to feel uncomfortable for more than a minute or two before a reassuringly stale joke rushes in to pat you on the head. Read full review
30
The DissolveKeith PhippsJul 16, 2014
When the film doesn’t strain for twinkly enlightenment, it stoops to find the easiest possible joke. Read full review
30
VarietyScott FoundasJan 27, 2014
The result is unquestionably an auteur film, but one festooned with so many bad and unnecessary ideas that one can’t help wondering if a more modest, hemmed-in version of the same project might not have proved more effective. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 17, 2014
As an actor, Braff does thin-skinned sad-sack quite well. As a writer, he’s hopelessly banal. As a director, he’s a disaster. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedJul 16, 2014
Pretentious (it thinks it’s a comedy but descends into depression faster than you can fill a Prozac prescription) and self-indulgent (whole scenes are thrown in for no reason except to stretch a five-minute sitcom pitch into nearly two hours of phony, contrived tedium), it’s a mess begging for coherence. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChris CabinJul 14, 2014
It's hard to see the fiscal woes at the center of Zach Braff's second feature as anything more than a fashionable depiction of first-world problems. Read full review
12
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJul 17, 2014
A sweet and sloppy jumble of fantasy, sentimentality, comedy and soul-searching that feels like a sitcom that never got past the pilot stage. Read full review
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