30
Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberThe Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberWhat makes it intermittently palatable even to non-believers is that it acknowledges some of the darker truths of the era.
- 50Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSlant MagazineEd GonzalezIt conveys life experience to such a sentimentalized degree that the world comes to resemble only the sham of a Norman Rockwell painting.
- 50Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreLittle Boy is loaded with weighty subjects and teachable moments, all doled out between generous helpings of tragedy and sentiment. It’s ambitious, but a cluttered weeper whose lessons might have stuck, had there been fewer of them.
- 30Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonA drearily sincere movie about faith and tolerance, Little Boy boasts plenty of good intentions but very little else.
- 25New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithThough Wilkinson gives an atypically restrained performance that lends the movie its best moments, and Watson manages to breathe a little life into her underwritten character, the movie is hopelessly simple-minded, with corny fantasy sequences, slathered-on folksiness and a plot twist that it would take a miracle of self-delusion not to see coming.
- 20VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangThe problem here isn’t theological; even if it were in service of a different message entirely, the sheer gracelessness of Monteverde’s storytelling would be a massive turnoff.
- 20The DissolveKeith PhippsThe DissolveKeith PhippsIn some ways it takes the right approach, attempting to mix moral lessons into a narrative rather than hit audiences over the head with them. But the lessons are so pat that every moment in which Pepper makes a good moral choice feels like an act of self-congratulation.
- 10Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlExaminations of faith on film don't have to be noxious.