The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
Bringing good old-fashioned Mediterranean emotion to a screenplay that feels oh so familiar, this modern-day weepie unapologetically plays to the crowd rather than the critics.
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Gabriele Muccino
Cast
Amanda Seyfried,
Russell Crowe,
Aaron Paul,
Diane Kruger,
Jane Fonda,
Bruce Greenwood
Genre
Drama
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
Bringing good old-fashioned Mediterranean emotion to a screenplay that feels oh so familiar, this modern-day weepie unapologetically plays to the crowd rather than the critics.
Screen Daily by Wendy Ide
Seyfried is impressive in the role, mercurial and fragile, but with a flinty coldness deep within.
Screen International by Wendy Ide
Seyfried is impressive in the role, mercurial and fragile, but with a flinty coldness deep within.
Village Voice by Abbey Bender
While Fathers and Daughters has a strong cast (including a brief appearance by Jane Fonda), it largely saddles them with one-dimensional roles and too-obvious emotional cues.
Empire by Ian Freer
It’s tastefully shot and Crowe commits to the horrors of Jake’s illness (his seizures are upsetting) but the writing lacks depth, the character psychology is dime-store Freud and the performances are variable.
Time Out London by Dave Calhoun
The list of co-stars – Jane Fonda, Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul – is so impressive that it’s hard to know what attracted everyone to such a soapy, cloying script.
Movie Nation by Roger Moore
The sum of Fathers and Daughters is so much less than each of its individual parts. A misshapen attempt at maudlin (not unlike Muccino’s other Hollywood films), it enrages, here and there, but rarely touches or moves us.
Variety by Guy Lodge
In its shape and sheen, Fathers and Daughters seems dated even before Michael Bolton surfaces to cough up a gelatinous closing-credits ballad.
Observer by Rex Reed
This turkey is too clumsy and boring to make much of a ripple in the summer landscape.
The Telegraph by Tim Robey
The level of psychological nuance in Desch’s script, not to mention feminist enlightenment, makes EL James look like Virginia Woolf.
Slant Magazine by Ed Gonzalez
The film's weird reformulation of the Electra complex is nothing short of a sexist fantasy of salvation.
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