The Normal Heart
HBO | Release Date: May 25, 2014
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: The film has poetry and vitality, too, and its greatest virtue is that it seems not to give a damn if you approve of any of its creative choices as long as you connect with it emotionally and intellectually. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: The entire cast of The Normal Heart is outstanding, but no one stands out more than Bomer, who is so much the handsome star of USA's "White Collar," in the beginning, then almost unrecognizable as the dying Felix. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: It is a moment of fury and grace and wonder that this Heart, in which a brutally specific story is deftly re-tailored for another medium and time, loses none of its original passion or pointedness. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: Teeming with anger, sorrow, passion and purpose, this powerful and harrowing movie is part tragic love story in plague times, part agitprop manifesto and tribute to tireless activism. Read full review
100
People WeeklyTom GliattoMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: Ned and just about everyone else erupts in violent arguments, denunciations, accusations, counteraccusations, diatribes--these are searing, electrifying moments, furiously articulate and delivered with escalating passion. [2 Jun 2014, p.45] Read full review
100
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck BarneyMay 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: What [director Ryan Murphy] delivers is a film with piercing emotional honesty that feels rough, and real, and intimate, and truly full of heart. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandMay 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: It is emotionally raw, harrowing, and a thing of such singular horrific beauty, it will move you, exhaust you and, almost paradoxically, thrill you at the heights television drama can attain. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklMay 19, 2014
Season 1 Review: It’s also an intimately personal tale of Kramer’s heartbreaking first-hand experience with the disease. Directed by Ryan Murphy, it’s bound to put Emmys in the hands of a remarkable cast. Read full review
91
Uncle BarkyEd BarkMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: The Normal Heart grows in poignancy as characters we’ve come to know are affected or afflicted by AIDS. Read full review
91
NewsdayVerne GayMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: The cast succeeds, and in the end, so does Heart. Read full review
90
Sioux City JournalBruce MillerMay 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Like Behind the Candelabra, its action isn’t measured in car chases and explosions. It’s charted in the lives it touches. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf SmithMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: In a film directed by Ryan Murphy and with strong performances, including those by Mr. Ruffalo, Ms. Roberts, Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons and Alfred Molina, Mr. Mantello's anguished lament ["...can't you see how important it is for us to love openly...without guilt?"] may be the most haunting. Read full review
90
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: The story of the plague has been told before, and it will and should continue to find new life. But The Normal Heart tells it with admirable honesty and plenty of emotion. Read full review
90
SlateWilla PaskinMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: Murphy directs with straightforwardness and sincerity and none of the camp fireworks of Glee or American Horror Story. Read full review
90
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GrayMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: Though the supporting cast members are all good (Parsons particularly so) it's Kramer's fury, channeled through Ruffalo's manic energy as the writer's alter-ego Ned Weeks, that keeps The Normal Heart beating and preserves a horrific bit of all too recent history not in amber, but in anger. Read full review
90
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: The Normal Heart sets up a bit of a “this happened, then this happened” rhythm that does not bode well. But just as quickly, the film gets this historical crutch out of its system and begins to explore in greater depth the characters and their relationships. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanMay 21, 2014
Season 1 Review: While a miniseries might have truly been something to behold--allowing the slow helplessness to really penetrate viewers, there’s something to be said about making a big, loud noise and getting the message out--again. In that sense, both Murphy and Kramer do the play justice (as you would expect) and have created a powerful modern history reminder for those too young to understand the all-too-recent past. Read full review
90
VarietyBrian LowryMay 21, 2014
Season 1 Review: The translation from stage to screen also yields speeches that probably played better live, although the director has for the most part opened up the Tony-winning material into movie form. In its totality, this represents a powerful piece of work. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineMatt BrennanMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: HBO's The Normal Heart is a boldly corporeal expression of gay political consciousness. Read full review
80
TimeJames PoniewozikMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: It’s a first draft told by a first responder, with no time for niceties. But it is deepened and rounded out by some remarkable supporting performances, especially a fantastic Jim Parsons as Tommy, a warmhearted activist volunteer. Read full review
80
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: Murphy is a fascinating dichotomy in that he works expertly with actors and actresses (even in a mess like "Eat Pray Love" and undeniably in every season of "AHS") and so the performances he draws from his inevitably-Emmy-winning cast play tug-of-war with his melodramatic leanings and, ultimately, win the fight enough to allow his film to resonate. Read full review
80
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: The movie, adapted by Mr. Kramer and directed by Ryan Murphy, simultaneously exposes some of the play’s flaws and finds alternate sources of power in the story. Read full review
80
Cleveland Plain DealerMark DawidziakMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: Serve up enough great moments (and The Normal Heart certainly does), and Ryan's occasional missteps are easily dismissed as mere annoyances, not major gaffes. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleyMay 20, 2014
Season 1 Review: This reincarnation of The Normal Heart raises all the right disturbing questions. Read full review
75
HitfixAlan SepinwallMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: Ultimately, the good in Normal Heart outweighs the bad, which isn't always the case with Murphy's work. It's an important story packed with vivid individual moments, but with this material and these actors, it feels like it could be so much more than what it is. Read full review
75
The Detroit NewsTom LongMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: Morally and historically significant, emotionally wrenching and politically terrifying, The Normal Heart is more important than artful, and that’s just fine. Read full review
75
USA TodayRobert BiancoMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: What Mantello projects, and the movie lacks, is a kind of raw, exposed-nerve drive. As a play, The Normal Heart was political theater: It strong-armed you, but it worked. The movie emphasizes the love story to the point where it borders on romantic fantasy. Read full review
75
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: Buoyed by A-list star power, The Normal Heart beats erratically for more than two hours, yet delivers a gut punch in its climax. Read full review
70
Washington PostHank StueverMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: Everything that’s excellent about The Normal Heart--including compelling performances from its stars, Mark Ruffalo and Julia Roberts, with an especially strong turn from "White Collar’s" Matt Bomer--is also merely just fine; very good but not great; a tear-jerker but not a bawler; and probably beyond reproach. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: Characters make long, passionate speeches that sometimes fail to register because they feel like lectures--though maybe Kramer’s message shouldn’t be so easy to hear. Read full review
60
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandMay 27, 2014
Season 1 Review: Overscored and overwrought, The Normal Heart is a tough pill to swallow. The direction of Ryan Murphy (Glee) is piercingly staccato (and visually inconsistent). The tender moments don't resonate, and the fraught moments feel hysterical. Read full review
60
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanMay 23, 2014
Season 1 Review: The film just about rises above its many flaws, thanks to a some committed and affecting performances from seasoned actors like Mark Ruffalo, Joe Mantello and a surprisingly effective Julia Roberts. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubBrandon NowalkMay 22, 2014
Season 1 Review: The performances are literally shaky, from wavering accents to tremulous monologues, but the movie’s such an overwhelming weepie that they fit right in. Read full review
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