Mary and Martha
HBO | Release Date: April 20, 2013
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Uncle BarkyEd BarkApr 17, 2013
Season 1 Review: HBO subscribers thereby are the beneficiaries of a film with star power and staying power. It won’t surprise you with its outcome--or for the most part, how it gets there. But it may well have more of an impact than anticipated. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushApr 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: The actresses' chemistry makes up for an earnest predictability in the storytelling. Read full review
80
VarietyBrian LowryApr 15, 2013
Season 1 Review: Mary and Martha is a moving return to intimate form for HBO. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklySara VilkomersonApr 15, 2013
Season 1 Review: In heart-tugging fashion, writer Richard Curtis and director Phillip Noyce frame the duo's attempts to raise awareness about this preventable disease [malaria]. Read full review
63
New York PostLinda StasiApr 22, 2013
Season 1 Review: While Swank and Blethyn make everything they’re in more remarkable for their presence, the movie plays more like a based-on-fact Lifetime flick than an HBO work of fiction. Read full review
63
RedEyeCurt WagnerApr 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: While well acted and artfully shot, it suffers from message movie traps. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraApr 22, 2013
Season 1 Review: What Swank doesn't bring is any sort of emotional connection, either to Mary, Mary's son or the audience.... Mercifully, Blethyn eventually joins her on the screen and is, as ever, simple perfection, needing to do little more than utter two words with an anguished squint to break your heart into 50 million pieces. When the two meet up, Mary and Martha begins to transcend the drumbeat of its message. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerApr 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: The malaria story, it seems to say, is filmable only if the central figures are white and it is larded up with the kind of button-pushing that television dramas thrive on.... But the scenes in which the two actresses are together have some real power. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertApr 19, 2013
Season 1 Review: Essentially, Mary and Martha operates like an EZ-to-read Lifetime movie with HBO production values. Read full review
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