49
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinThis is an extraordinary film.
- 67The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayIf he’d pulled back more, Gondry might’ve seen the real story here: how maternal figures often look better to people who don’t actually have them for a mother.
- You might think that the small-scale, straightforward style and intimate connections of The Thorn in the Heart would result in something more emotionally resonant than we’re accustomed to from Mr. Gondry, but you’d be disappointed.
- 50New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoThe film is well-constructed, as one would expect from Gondry, but it offers little reason for anyone outside the family circle to care about dear old Tante Suzette.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanBut overall, this lazy, sweet trifle seems to express the banality of well-being.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterShould be intriguing to all who know the family, as well as to cineastes yonder at the arty film schools who will lap up its elliptical/self-reflexive style. Normal people will simply walk out on it.
- 40VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangThis moving but far from revelatory portrait of a beloved family figure registers as too slight and personal for significant theatrical play.
- 40Village VoiceVillage VoiceIt's a shock, then, that The Thorn in the Heart, Gondry's documentary about his own family, is so unimaginative and inaccessible.
- 40Time OutNicolas RapoldTime OutNicolas RapoldOverall, the movie has the bantamweight feel of a really long DVD extra: Little details of the director’s ancestral stomping grounds are appealing, but don’t jell into something satisfying.
- 20New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNew York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierThe connection they share is clear; the reason we're invited to sit in is foggy at best.