Rudderless 2014

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "Rudderless" isn't always smoothly paced, and features a plot twist that's awkwardly handled, but at its heart is a performance that resonates - and a director that, I hope, has more stories to tell. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Somewhat baffling in retrospect, if actually rather bland and formulaic to watch. Read more

Jesse Hassenger, AV Club: The songs, generically rousing as they are, help distinguish the movie from its mourning-drama brethren and infuse it with some energy. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Rudderless" is a quietly ambitious film, and if it eventually collapses under the dramatic weight it's asked to shoulder - and it does - at least it's trying. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The story takes an even sharper left turn in the last half hour, raising emotional issues it can't adequately address. Read more

Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: Crudup's performance holds the center. His pain isn't soggy or showy; it just feels true. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: A sober but not at all humorless film in which sentimentality is viewed as suspect, something to be indulged, if at all, in secrecy. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: For all its noble intentions and loaded emotions, "Rudderless" proves a largely hollow, uninvolving affair. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Macy's theatrical direction has always been topnotch. So consider this a warmup. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Dishonest, manipulative and ultimately infuriating ... Read more

Leba Hertz, San Francisco Chronicle: It's not easy making an uplifting film about the aftermath of the death of a son. But director and co-writer William H. Macy and actor Billy Crudup as the bereaved father pull it off in "Rudderless," a movie more about redemption than the causes of evil. Read more

Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail: Rudderless is humane and almost entertaining. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: The film is a roller-coaster of emotions and the jolt, when it comes, will send you reeling. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: A kind of unholy mash-up of Lynne Ramsay's sobering school-massacre melodrama We Need to Talk About Kevin with John Carney's bogus feel-good musical Begin Again. Read more

Sam Weisberg, Village Voice: It's puzzling why a talent like Macy bothered with a project that is so long on sentiment and short on comic relief - and unclear on what it wants to say on a variety of hot-button topics. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "Rudderless" is a competent, well-acted melodrama, yet in scope and ambition it has the modest and serviceable scale of the small, not silver, screen. Read more