60
The film is handsome, the players nearly all effective, but the story highlights are confined within a narrow range of ho-hum dramatization.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Dull and lifeless.
75
Washington Post by Gary Arnold
Malle's most forcefull dramatic element is the feeling of rivalry and resentment that exists between mother and child without the characters being conscious of it. The script is eloquently supplied with scenes illustration this fundamental conflict and bond. [26 Apr 1978, p.B1]
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Louis Malle's Pretty Baby is a pleasant surprise: After all the controversy and scandal surrounding its production, it turns out to be a good-hearted, good-looking, quietly elegiac movie.