70
Although he's invisible, his poignant desire to overcome his isolation makes this film an interesting, frequently funny, and cautionary riff on our increasingly computer-bound society.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
83
Portland Oregonian by Barry Johnson
Its ambiguity allows us the chance to provide our own satirical edge to the film.
80
A funny and original film set in a future when communications are even more refined than they are now.
75
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
You'd think it would be boring to stare at Thomas's computer screen so intently for 97 minutes, but the movie is eerily riveting.
50
Village Voice by Jessica Winter
It's squeamish about sex but not, unfortunately, sentiment.
30
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Thomas is a couch potato as well as a recluse, and a terminal bore to boot. The women, real and simulated, are only slightly more interesting, and then only when they talk back.
40
New Times (L.A.) by Luke Y. Thompson
"Center of the World" portrays a much more believable example of what happens when a computer nerd realizes that his erotic fantasies aren't the same thing as love.
50
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
The story is slight and would probably be better suited to a short subject, but first-time feature filmmaker Pierre-Paul Renders gives it a striking formal twist: It's told entirely in the first person.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The movie, after a while, drifts into an all too literal parable of the limits of never leaving the house.
25
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak
Since we never see Thomas, we can't care for him. And he's hardly a sympathetic "hero" in his treatment of women and his insistence that other characters honor his personal boundaries while he ignores theirs.