Hateship Loveship 2014

Sara Stewart, New York Post: I hope this is Wiig's last sad-sack turn; it seems a waste to ignore those comic chops in the pursuit of this sort of Serious Acting. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Liza Johnson makes fine, steady progress with this delicate and absorbing character study starring Kristen Wiig. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: A preposterous wish-fulfillment fantasy with an enormous void at its center. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It doesn't take long for us to get lost in Wiig's thorough portrayal of a dowdy housekeeper who must soldier on in the face of a cruel prank to find some kind of love in her life. Read more

Drew Hunt, Chicago Reader: This jumbled drama gets decent mileage out of actress Kristen Wiig but is hindered by a subpar script that fails to translate Munro's characterizations and intricate plotting to the screen. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The people on screen are all worth watching, as is Johnson's directorial career. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: This is a movie in which our worst pulp expectations are constantly being upended. Read more

Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter: Kristin Wiig's turn as a dowdy caretaker is the highlight of this contemporary American take on Cinderella. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Rather than sifting through the emotional layers of a surprisingly determined young woman, more often the scenes feel drained of life. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: The buttoned-up, buttoned-lipped Wiig seems to have landed in the Midwest from Mars, as though, like David Bowie before her, she's The Maid Who Fell to Earth Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Short fiction can be a marvelous blueprint for film and revisiting Nobel Prize-winner Munro's story in this era of "catfishing" makes a lot of sense: People are no less desperate for connection than they ever have been. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: When a script can't give even a drugged-out Jennifer Jason Leigh a tasty scene to chew on, it's playing just a little too nice. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Too bad "blahship" isn't an option. Because that sums it up. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: An absorbing, messy, modest story of damaged relationships. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Liza Johnson's nicely tuned, and turned, adaptation of the Alice Munro short story "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage." Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: "Kristen Wiig's performance in "Hateship Loveship" is so beautifully muted it takes a while to appreciate the loveliness of the notes she's hitting." Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: It's amazing how much this film does accomplish, given its modesty of both means and scale. Read more

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Wiig's underplaying, a repressed otherworldly Sissy Spacek sort of thing, has its moments of humor, but this proud, simple woman is never for an instant comic. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: What's supposed to be guileless and unformed starts to feel like shtick. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: We've never seen a protagonist quite like Johanna, who on the one hand personifies female self-abnegation at its most domesticated, but on the other embodies the sheer will at its most stubborn. Read more