50
It's a compelling and ambitious idea, but one that misfires because of its underwhelming characters and slack storytelling.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
What really separates "Midlands" from Leone's desiccated, terse genre work is Mr. Meadows's doting attention to his characters' decency. It gives a demonstrative bittersweetness to a likable but small story.
80
Marvelously involving family saga.
50
A movie saved by great acting.
38
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
After 45 minutes of incomparable boredom, the movie gets slightly better when it stops reaching for cheap yuks and lets the actors do what they do well.
60
Village Voice by Jessica Winter
There are pages missing from this fable: Meadows reports that his financiers asked him to cut one-quarter of his original script just before production began, and his fondness for long takes sits uneasily beside the apparent gaps in the narrative.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
There are instances when the filmmaker tries for Western iconography and settles for ''Full Monty'' ingratiation.
40
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
The complications are predictable, as is the resolution; what keeps the film from sinking into its own inconsequentiality is the throaty-voiced Henderson, who can make the most preposterous behavior ring absolutely true.
63
New York Post by Megan Lehmann
Just Brit filmmaker Shane Meadows having some fun with the conventions of the spaghetti western.
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker
It's an interesting experiment that doesn't quite work.