Flipped 2010

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's a bit too Wonder Years at times, but the odd two-narrators gimmick plays right into the film's "flip" in structure. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: Flipped is sweet and something like honest, heartfelt and phonily sincere, and it will be, at risk of coarse honesty, catnip for old people. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: That Flipped isn't insufferably cute is a measure of its integrity. But it still strains to view the world through the eyes of children without a filter of grown-up cynicism. Read more

Lisa Rosman, Time Out: Though the dialogue rings too chirpy ("Gee whiz!") and faintly anachronistic ("Get over it, man!"), the acting is wonderfully subtle... Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: I can't say anything nice about Flipped, a painfully clumsy adaptation of a tween novel by Wendelin Van Draanen. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Flipped offers an achingly familiar look at puppy love from two contrasting angles, each of them insufferably saccharine. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A minor pleasure that will strike a lot of moviegoers -- those who think no one makes movies for them anymore -- as a major treat. Read more

Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader: Based on a popular young-adult novel and brimming with all the angst and schmaltz you'd expect from such a source, this awkward coming-of-age drama does nothing to gild the legacy of middlebrow maestro Rob Reiner. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Reiner's picture lands somewhere between synthetic nostalgia and the texture of real life. Read more

Adam Markovitz, Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: Reiner again demonstrates compassion and insight into young people's battles to acquire self-knowledge, but in his new film, too many clearly fictional characters and contrived situations bog down his story. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Flipped is the kind of small, special movie that wraps you up in so much warmth, humor and humanity that it will leave you wishing that stories like this weren't so rare. Read more

Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly: Reiner, in very broad strokes, works in issues of poverty, thwarted dreams and family obligation, and almost pulls it off. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: There's barely half a film here, stretched and pulled so thin you can nearly see through it. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: We have here a movie that's pitch-perfect one minute and awkwardly schmaltzy the next. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Reiner, who made the similarly themed The Sure Thing about opposites who repel and attract, is a most sympathetic director of actors. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Flipped is Rob Reiner's best film in 18 years. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Maybe what makes Flipped such a warm entertainment is how it re-creates a life we wish we'd had when we were 14. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Flipped is as phony as a poodle-skirted waitress at a mall diner, yet it's as sweet as a malt. A vanilla one. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The whole thing would go down like a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, were it not for the lively lead presence of Madeline Carroll and Callan McAuliffe, two young talents who make the movie better than it deserves to be. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A pleasantly nostalgic and well-intentioned family movie featuring strong performances by its young actors. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: A somewhat leaden piece of work, its considerable charms nearly smothered by strange pacing and awkward staging. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: At times, the movie feels like a commercial for Wonder Bread, stretched to feature length. Read more