Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: Director Damien O'Donnell and screenwriter Jeffrey Caine faithfully adhere to the bylaws of melodrama and quickly plunge us from triumph to tragedy. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: All of the characters have more depth than you get sometimes in these movies where it's cardboard caricatures. Read more
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Wildly uneven, constantly veering between honest emotions and insights and bald manipulation and contrivance. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: As charming a devil as the actor James McAvoy may be, the movie gives Rory, in his defensive brashness, no layers, no dimension of personal dream. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The script, despite doses of irreverent humour, feels manipulative... Read more
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Enjoyable piece of middlebrow British ephemera. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: Writer Jeffrey Caine and director Damien O'Donnell all but cut out our vital organ with moments of hard-sell poignancy. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: What keeps us watching are the two leads. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: In this earnest but ill-conceived message movie, Irish director Damien O'Donnell appears determined to teach us a lesson without quite understanding it himself. Read more
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Despite the periodic twinkling, the occasional detours into sentimentality and, most egregiously, the syrupy soundtrack that threatens to engulf the story at every turn, Rory O'Shea Was Here is better than the usual three-stage journey of courage. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: As a feel-good movie about disabled youths, Rory O'Shea Was Here gets the job done, but it isn't interesting or daring enough to make it worth a trip to a theater. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Funny and moving, and more entertaining than some of the movies you are considering this weekend. Read more
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Sweet and deeply moving. Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: By all outward appearance and promotional literature, this movie wishes to depict the lives of seriously handicapped people in as real and accurate a way as possible. So why does it resort to some of the most insultingly lame cliches imaginable? Read more
Derek Elley, Variety: Pic is hampered by a predictable, only mildy humorous script that chugs its way to a so-what conclusion. Read more
Jessica Winter, Village Voice: A plea for equality of opportunity, a worthy objective somewhat obscured by non-disabled actors occupying the lead roles. Read more
Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Sentimentality and gloom are treated with appropriate, if often unprintable, contempt. Read more
Teresa Wiltz, Washington Post: For all its noble intentions and vigorous performances, never transcends the claustrophobic character study. Read more