58
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaNew York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaIt’s remarkable how engaging and light on its feet the director and cast are able to keep this subject matter, how much permission he gives them to f*ck up and try again.
- 80Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonWall Street JournalJohn AndersonA daring little drama with a heavyweight cast, a gracefully delivered message and a hellish problem — specifically, other people.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinThe Hollywood ReporterLeslie Felperin[A] simply lovely comedy-drama.
- 75The Associated PressLindsey BahrThe Associated PressLindsey BahrA Kid Like Jake might not be especially cinematic, but it is profound in its simplicity and truthfulness about what real fights sound like and what real lives look like.
- 50Slant MagazineSlant MagazineThough the film makes the important point that even the most liberal parents' acceptance of a child's difference may be repression by another name, it fails to excite sufficient sympathy for its broadly drawn principal characters.
- 50The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyIf Howard and Pearle’s idea was to show how an extended argument devolves into the worst values of a previous generation — lashing out with implicit homophobia, resentment, and misogyny in the film’s shouty, snotty, excessively busy final third — then it comes too late here, before being patly resolved. A sharper drama would have made it the focus.
- 50The New York TimesGlenn KennyThe New York TimesGlenn KennyDirected by Silas Howard from a screenplay by Daniel Pearle, who adapted his own stage play, A Kid Like Jake is humane, compassionate and strangely detached, almost to the point of inconsequentiality.
- 50New York PostJohnny OleksinskiNew York PostJohnny OleksinskiDanes and Parsons are a weird pairing, who carry their TV personas with them like tote bags. Their “Homeland” and “Big Bang Theory” shticks don’t quite click. Even so, when Danes’ mother comes to realize that her sweet kid is more than just a talking point, she’ll have you wiping away tears.
- 40TheWrapDan CallahanTheWrapDan CallahanThe writing in A Kid Like Jake feels more like playwriting than like screenwriting because we are told things in dialogue about Jake but barely ever get to see him behaving.
- 40Village VoiceKristen Yoonsoo KimVillage VoiceKristen Yoonsoo KimHoward, who is trans himself, approaches the film with sensitivity, but it ends up feeling like a conversation to be continued, not resolved. At least there’s some classic Claire Danes crying.