70
There’s pleasingly little sentimentality and much honesty to be found in Hirayanagi’s screenplay, particularly in its acknowledgement that new experiences can make you lose, as much as broaden, your mind.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
Most of Oh Lucy! passes by breezily, and in different hands this could easily be a crowdpleasing comedy...but when Hirayanagi opts to plunge deeper, you realize the darkness has been there waiting all along.
60
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
While it's uneven, and at times seems almost artless in its craft, the story has an idiosyncratic charm that pays off in an unexpectedly touching ending.
70
Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang
Within the confines of this cross-cultural shaggy-dog tale, Hirayanagi locates both a sharp vein of absurdist comedy and a bitter, melancholy undertow. She also has a deft enough touch to make one mode almost indistinguishable from the other.
80
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
A movie in which the human comedy is by turns tender, plaintive, heartfelt and joyful.
63
Slant Magazine by Peter Goldberg
Atsuko Hirayanagi's feature-length directorial debut offers a surprising take on the tricky art of communication.
67
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
Setsuko’s pathetic attempt to claim a new life for herself is touching. The film never makes fun of her.
63
Oh Lucy! is a slight comedy of offbeat, culture clash charms with a dark, flinty edge. It benefits from spot-on casting, testy-funny situations and cultural stereotypes that well up just below the surface, stereotypes popped almost the moment they’re exposed.
80
Village Voice by Serena Donadoni
Hirayanagi acknowledges that reinvention isn’t as simple as trading Setsuko’s messy stagnation for Lucy’s zany possibility. What Setsuko fears most is losing everything, but that may be her best option.
60
Oh Lucy!’s plot feels overthought. The tone see-saws wildly. What prevents it collapsing are the warm, heartfelt performances, together with Hirayanagi’s obvious affection for her chief protagonist.