Brief Interviews with Hideous Men 2009

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: Tthough this experiment doesn't quite succeed, there's enough intelligence and insight in this movie to make it worth the attempt. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: The question is, could someone turn these full-frontal-dudity snapshots into a satisfying, cohesive movie? Answer: no, but not for lack of trying. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: John Krasinski's adaptation of David Foster Wallace's ... Brief Interviews With Hideous Men works only in spurts, but when it does, it's enough to remind us how much deeper our dramatists could drill -- and of the magnitude of Wallace's loss. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Krasinski literalizes Wallace's stylistic love of asides too much, but it helps that he's aware enough of his movie's limitations to keep Brief Interviews blessedly short. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: These performers, as inspired as some of them are, spoil a sinister book with earnest acting. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Krasinski preserves Wallace's whooshing roller coasters of words, powered by the fuel of confession. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: Faced with the unenviable choice between honoring his daunting inspiration and telling his own story, the director shoots straight down the middle -- and misses both targets. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Actor John Krasinski deserves credit for having the ambition to adapt material as difficult as David Foster Wallace's short stories. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Everyone speaks in the sweatily polysyllabic, Look-at-This-Writing-I'm-Doing tone that makes a page of Wallace pass like an hour on the treadmill, and the men are dopes or creeps. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Offers is the opportunity for a bunch of actors, many of them tethered to TV series, to deliver theatrical monologues pulsing with misogyny and narcissism. It's like second-rate Neil Labute. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: [Krasinski's] generosity of intent is really the main impression that remains. He read, he loved, and unfortunately, he did not conquer. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's an undeniably ambitious, if uneven, effort. Some of Krasinski's directorial flourishes are inspired, such as Christopher Meloni's imaginative re-telling (and offbeat re-enacting) about a woman he met as she stood crying at the airport. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: Whatever it was about Hideous Men that so deeply affected Krasinski the college student has been lost in translation. Read more