Little Boy 2015

Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun-Times: I just wish the filmmakers didn't feel like they had to hit us over the head with all the moral pontificating to get their point across. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Instead of being rated PG-13, this one should be slapped with the label PG-65, because it's hard to imagine anyone younger than that getting caught up in this earnest, obvious fable. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: This movie could make you pre-diabetic. That's an observation, not a criticism. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: The problem here isn't theological; even if it were in service of a different message entirely, the sheer gracelessness of Monteverde's storytelling would be a massive turnoff. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: "Believe the impossible," the tagline commands. It's a promise this shameless film has no intention of breaking. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It will likely appeal to the faithful, but that's as far as it goes. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: This is an ersatz version of the '40s based on other movies' ersatz versions, a Candyland-colored world seen from a child's point of view if that child was a 30-ish filmmaker. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Emily Watson plays the boy's mother and Tom Wilkinson turns up as a gentle parish priest, so this must have looked better on paper than it does onscreen. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: "Little Boy" answers a question most tear-jerkers wouldn't have the nerve to ask: Can the bombing of Hiroshima be manipulated narratively, if briefly, into a position of warming our hearts? The answer is no. Read more

Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter: The entire picture, though well-meaning and even thoughtful, is finally just a little too gooey. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: Tolerance, World War II history and faith are served up with a sticky sentimental gloss in the family film "Little Boy." Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: One of the most insightful films about religion since the 1977 comedy "Oh, God!," which also wrangled with personal beliefs and unprovable truths. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: Somewhere amid the storytelling rubble in "Little Boy" there's a decent message against racial prejudice. But it's suffocated beneath a hokey premise and hopelessly square execution. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: A movie that has the haranguing inspirational tone of a marathon Sunday-school lesson. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: It's meant to be a tale of uplift for faith-based audiences, but instead wears viewers down with a heavy-handed narrative, an overbearing score and voiceover that spells out everything in cringe-inducing, folksy tones. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: It takes no genius to guess where this story is going, but whatever dramatic validity the movie had is lost in the have-your-cake-and-eat-it finale. It's a jaw-dropper. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: The film has a good cast, and is competently made in a plain-vanilla way, but its greatest appeal will be to those who share its endorsement of traditional religious values. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: Despite boasting several important moral lessons, the period piece is more artificial than a polyester teddy bear stuffed with Splenda and Cheez Whiz - and about as appealing Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: [A] cynical, poisonous, deeply stupid film ... Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "Little Boy" is a as phony as a game of three-card monte. Read more