ReelViews by James Berardinelli

Mandoki has given us a powerful motion picture. Even those who disagree with the film's politics will be haunted by its message.

USA Today by Claudia Puig

Not for the faint-hearted.

L.A. Weekly by F. X. Feeney

Chilean-born actress Leonor Varela (TV's Cleopatra, a few seasons back) plays Chavo's mother, who, in her rage to see her children survive, powerfully embodies the film's moral center.

Dallas Observer by Jean Oppenheimer

Alternately heartrending and buoyant, tragic and sweetly humorous, the film leaves an indelible impression on the heart and mind. It's among the best of the year.

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

A riveting tale of survival and how even war cannot diminish a child's indomitable spirit.

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas

Mandoki, who with this film returns to the Spanish-speaking cinema after a string of Hollywood films, has brought a sure sense of the visual and taut construction to Innocent Voices, based on a true story. It is filled with wrenching images.

Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer

The actors, all of whom seem too posed and pretty, are not particularly accomplished, and director Luis Mandoki lacks the visual imagination to bring the story to a boil.

New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman

The many riveting moments will stay with you for days, and Padilla is well up to the task of carrying this intense story on his tiny shoulders.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Location shooting gives this intermittently powerful film a semidocumentary feel.

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Mandoki never passes up a chance to increase the schmaltz level, but that doesn't lessen the impact of this harrowing account of a hellish childhood.

The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias

It's only human to feel gripped, enraged, and even moved by the events depicted in Innocent Voices, a true account of one boy's experience in the crossfire of El Salvador's long, bloody civil war.

Variety by Scott Foundas

While the respectable result is a more meaningful film than just about anything Mandoki worked on during his 17 years in Hollywood ("Angel Eyes," "Message in a Bottle"), pic suffers from an overindulgence of triumph-over-adversity cliches and a meandering narrative.

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

As an outcry against the forcible conscription of children into armies around the world, Innocent Voices, is an honorable film. But as a balanced portrait of a tragic civil war, it is simplistic and opaque.

Village Voice by Ben Kenigsberg

For more than an hour, schmaltzmeister Luis Mandoki (Message in a Bottle) directs as if on assignment for Miramax.