40
Village Voice by Ben Kenigsberg
For more than an hour, schmaltzmeister Luis Mandoki (Message in a Bottle) directs as if on assignment for Miramax.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
75
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.
80
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.
88
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.
80
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.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
A riveting tale of survival and how even war cannot diminish a child's indomitable spirit.
75
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.
60
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.
70
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.
50
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.