In the film's most flamboyant role, Peter Sarsgaard's devil-ish charisma and cold bluster is frightening.
70
VarietyDennis Harvey
VarietyDennis Harvey
The full warmth and idiosyncrasy of Chabon's original is missed in an adaptation that feels more impersonally observed. But Lawson's pic, (with the director making a left turn from prior feature "Dodgeball," which he says was a money gig undertaken to hasten this dream project) is entertaining and involving enough on its own terms.
60
Film Threat
Film Threat
Disappointed fans of Michael Chabon will have to watch "Wonder Boys" for solace, for The Mysteries of Pittsburgh boasts only one core mystery: how one can take such promising material and render it completely unmemorable?
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie is all the more artificial because it has been made with great, almost painful, earnestness.
Only Sarsgaard shows a pulse, creating a self-destructive, omnisexual rogue who, for all his faults, would probably be great company. The same can't be said for the film around him.
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Marries an unengaging love triangle to a flat visual style, nearly squashing the one good thing in it -- a scruffy, slouching performance from Peter Sarsgaard.
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
A coming-of-ager that nearly slaughters you by minute 30 with the relentlessness of its protagonist's voiceovers.
38
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Almost nothing works in this movie.
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A stillborn rendering of Michael Chabon's first novel.
20
Village Voice
Village Voice
Mena Suvari, as Art's vindictive ex-fuckbuddy, gives sole signs of life--Miller is so void of presence that one can forget she's in the movie from scene to scene.