New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein

This is an extraordinary film.

The A.V. Club by Noel Murray

If 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.

The New York Times

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.

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

The 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.

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

But overall, this lazy, sweet trifle seems to express the banality of well-being.

The Hollywood Reporter

Should 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.

Time Out by Nicolas Rapold

Overall, 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.

Village Voice

It's a shock, then, that The Thorn in the Heart, Gondry's documentary about his own family, is so unimaginative and inaccessible.

Variety by Justin Chang

This moving but far from revelatory portrait of a beloved family figure registers as too slight and personal for significant theatrical play.

New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier

The connection they share is clear; the reason we're invited to sit in is foggy at best.