The Telegraph by Tim Robey

The hesitancy of the storytelling, with its comforting lulls and odd delays, is a funny sort of boon.

The Observer (UK) by Wendy Ide

The precision in the shot composition is mirrored in the storytelling – there’s an unassuming elegance that balances the eccentricity of a film that makes something as mundane as Scrabble into a taut dramatic device.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

This film is a distinct, articulate pleasure.

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Crust

There’s a terrific ensemble — including Ella-Grace Gregoire as a girl Jack has a crush on — but it’s Nighy who will have you enthralled. He delivers a subtle, nuanced performance that allows the actor to shine while in full support of his costars.

Slant Magazine by Jake Cole

The film unites its seemingly disparate strands of somber drama and deadpan comedy into a surprisingly cohesive whole.

Original-Cin by Liam Lacey

Sometimes, the script is very funny; always, it tries too hard to please; and it never lets you forget that it has been calculated down to a smirk and a teardrop.

Chicago Sun-Times by Richard Roeper

Director Carl Hunter infuses Sometimes Always Never with creative visual touches, whether he’s using graphics to illustrate certain Scrabble words, or shooting a poignant scene through a patterned glass door, so we feel the emotions of the character in question just through the movement of his silhouette.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Anne T. Donahue

The film is also peppered with animation, mid-century kitsch and a touch of whimsy, making Sometimes Always Never seem more like an intimate stage production than an exercise in cinematic self-seriousness.

TheWrap by Carlos Aguilar

Strong casting keeps the film thriving through its many winding subplots.

Variety by Jessica Kiang

Riley, Nighy, Lowe and Agutter all find some truthful, moving place to work from, despite the ever-present threat of being upstaged by a kitschy sconce or an eye-jangling turquoise-and-pink color scheme.

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

Sometimes Always Never has enough outside-looking-in charm, and Nighy, to make it nice fit to any Anglophile filmgoer.

The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin

Whimsical and wistful, if occasionally a little too self-consciously kooky, British comedy-drama Sometimes Always Never constructs a pleasant portrait of a mildly unhappy family living in the English northwest.

Empire

Despite strong performances and a witty script, Sometimes Always Never lays on the homage a little too thick for its own good, shortchanging itself by imitating a particularly idiosyncratic style.