Australia, United States · 2012
1h 56m
Director P.J. Hogan
Starring Liev Schreiber, Toni Collette, Caroline Goodall, Anthony LaPaglia
Genre Comedy, Drama
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A charismatic, crazy hothead transforms a family's life when she becomes the nanny of five girls.
There is a lot of yelling and emoting and it all gets strident very quickly — as in, the first 10 minutes. Hogan keeps everything self-consciously quirky, with lots of bright primary colors all over the place, but it feels like wild overkill.
Los Angeles Times by Gary Goldstein
Writer-director P.J. Hogan may have based Mental on an actual incident from his childhood, but the crazy quilt of a movie that resulted feels anything but real.
The more dramatic moments feel unanchored to the more farcical, and the humor ranges erratically from scatological to tender/heartwarming and back to cheap shots at slightly uncomfortable stereotypes. "Uneven" would be the kind way of putting it, but "messy" is probably nearer to the truth.
Portland Oregonian by Marc Mohan
Not content to make his point through sharp-tongued comedy, Hogan ends up beating a dead horse -- or shark, as the case may be.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It's always a pleasure to see Collette, a performer who always cranks up the energy, and yet here, as so often, she gives the impression of a ferocious screen intelligence somehow not being used to the full.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service by Roger Moore
Not every cute movie about the mentally ill is Oscar worthy, but this touching and riotous one from Down Under works well enough.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Mental wildly overplays the kookiness and quirk.
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