House of D 2005

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: The year is young -- there is a movie featuring Paris Hilton due soon -- but it's hard to imagine anything in 2005 being more excruciating to endure. Read more

Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: Goes from bad to unbearable in a single scene. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: The kind of personal film that fails in a way that makes your teeth ache. It's obviously a labor of love on the part of its first-time writer-director, but as a coming-of-age memoir it lacks charm, originality and taste. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's unfortunate not so much for Duchovny as it is for the viewer, who must endure a cloying, achingly precious coming of age story. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The movie never gels. It lies there, flat and unconvincing, with little spurts of florid melodrama. Read more

AV Club: Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: What should be a 10-minute anecdote turns into a sluggish and overly sentimental tale that won't hold the interest of anyone outside Duchovny's immediate family. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: House of D dawdles along as the sort of 1970s-inflicted coming of age reminiscence that feels like the unprocessed ramblings of its creator. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: A film that takes a steadfastly gentle look at some of life's harshest moments while not overlooking its joys. Read more

Houston Chronicle: Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: David Duchovny claims he wrote the screenplay for House of D in only six days. It shows. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Despite a weak foundation built with coming-of-age cliches, House of D almost works as a melancholy look back. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: An overly picaresque first feature written and directed by David Duchovny. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: The film never sidesteps the puddles of self-indulgence that soil many feature-length directorial debuts, particularly those of an autobiographical nature. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: David Duchovny's debut as a writer-director puts little flesh on the bones of the roguish tricks he got up to as a lad in Greenwich Village in the 1970s. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Duchovny displays a firm sense of time and place and genuine affection for all his characters, offering up plenty of amusing running gags and, most courageously, unabashed emotion. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: House of D is intensely incompetent. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: [A] sappy and improbable story. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The reasons to avoid House of D, David Duchovny's earnest, unwatchable coming-of-age drama, can best be summarized in a simple declarative sentence. Robin Williams plays a retarded janitor. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It's a warm, nostalgic mood piece that recaptures a time and place when people were friendlier and more human, things were more positive, movies were more creative and life was more fun. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A sweet but inept coming-of-age tale. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: House of D is the kind of movie that particularly makes me cringe, because it has such a shameless desire to please. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: As soon as Williams enters, simpering, this is a character that we wish would die a horrid death, or at least disappear. That's a problem Duchovny can't overcome. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: In need of a tighter narrative and, more importantly, a raison d'etre. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Because dark secrets always summon flashbacks, the telling of Tom's plunges us back to Greenwich Village, circa 1973. Sideburns sprout, classic rock proliferates and lapels run amok. Then the horror really begins. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The movie is Exhibit A of what can happen when an actor is allowed to pursue a vanity project without outside intervention. Read more

David Rooney, Variety: Feels false and platitudinous -- a calculated crowd-pleaser that, despite being an original story, plays like a poorly condensed novel with a scripter unable to make choices. Read more

Ed Park, Village Voice: Marred by a rambling voice-over at one end and a pat therapeutic resolution on the other, the film has a nice half-hour patch somewhere in the middle. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: A little more literary than lifelike, House of D is a story that feels too pat, and too perfect, for its own good. Read more

Nelson Pressley, Washington Post: It's a fable that's too fabulous by half. Read more