Creation 2009

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Its view of life is that a paradigm-shifting breakthrough, rather than being the product of either solitary genius or cultural ferment, amounts instead to a pretext and a substitute for therapy. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: As period dramas go, Creation is quiet and modest, sparse in action and decked out with classy but unassuming costumes and sets. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Bettany is a fine and resourceful actor, but Creation is a battle he was doomed to lose. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Some good acting and fine cinematography are watered down in a tepid yawner that moves with the speed of natural selection, but without its irresistible sense of purpose. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: What begins as a multilayered tale of scientific discovery and cultural history gets reduced to a single maudlin idea: that even Charles Darwin had to evolve. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: An intriguing portrait of a man and a time that changed everything. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: There are good performances and fleeting moments of exquisite moviemaking, but the experience as a whole is an evolutionary dead end. A dodo this is not, but rather a curiosity -- an aye-aye of a film, or a narwhal. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The film is never less than intelligent and never more than accomplished. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A great moment in the history of ideas does not necessarily make for a great movie. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Darwin turned the world upside down, but there was more drama seeing Greg Kinnear play the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper in Flash of Genius. Read more

Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly: Creation's power lies in its layers, in the way it makes distinctions between religion and faith, and the ways it beautifully (save for one clunky bit of overexplanation) lays out the similarities between religion and science. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: As a journey through Darwin's discoveries, Creation fails, although, given the intricacy and the patience of his working methods, it is hard to imagine how such a film might succeed. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Although the movie tenderly observes the relationship between father and daughter and has some heart-rending moments, there isn't a lot of doubt why it got made: because actors love to do crazy. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It arrives on the 150th anniversary of the book, and the baroque direction by Jon Amiel is determined that we should live every single minute of it. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: While the film's flashbacks and -forwards are disorienting, the performances give the film propulsion and poignancy. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Jon Amiel, the film's director, tells his story with respect and some restraint, showing how sad and weakened Charles is and yet not ratcheting up his grief into unseemly melodrama. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Amiel has reduced a crucial moment in science to a Lifetime weepie about a workaholic who needs personal tragedy to wake him up to his wife's virtues. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Some questions just can't be answered by science, and the quandary of why Creation is so poundingly dull is one of them. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The film's attempt to depict challenging and thoughtful material is appreciated, even if the results are mixed. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Bettany's sheepish performance fails to engage, and Connelly, his wife in real life, seems distant and frigid. There is no sense of romance between them. That may be accurate, but it's no fun to watch. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's smart, heartfelt, handsome and just mutated enough to sustain interest in a specialized subject. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: What begins as a drama about the birth of a great notion -- with its attendant battles between the pro and con sides -- instead becomes a dreary melodrama about family grief. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Don't expect anything too radical from this infuriatingly soft yet still pleasantly subdued and poignant screen adaptation of Randal Keynes's book 'Annie's Box' Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: After seeing the movie, a sense of insufficiency remains; we feel the need to read additional accounts to truly learn about the man who left such a huge imprint on science. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Not much "happens," though the pic does its best to maintain energy in both physical presentation and mixed-chronology structure. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: For a movie that clearly seeks to bring Darwin to life, Creation spends an awful lot of time wallowing in death. Read more