Seven Days in Utopia 2011

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Supporting bits, like the saintly love interest played by Deborah Ann Woll, function more as archetypes than flesh-and-blood characters in a lively story. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: [A] humorless, mystically fortified golfing movie... Read more

Andrew Schenker, Time Out: If any film ever needed a mulligan.... Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: A cluttered, empty drama that uses (or tries to use) golf, painting, dinner-table prayers and fly-fishing as pathways to enlightenment. When that doesn't work, the filmmakers start preaching. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Not a second of it is convincing -- or compelling -- but then the film is about "utopia," a blandly idealized place unblemished by hardship, malice, sin, or errant golf strokes. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: [It's] told in such predictable and bland fashion it dulls the effect. And this in a movie with Robert Duvall, Lucas Black and Melissa Leo. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: If I understand "Seven Days in Utopia,'' some guys spend their entire day thinking about golf, and God thinks those guys are crazy. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Seven Days in Utopia, of course, like most sports movies with higher aspirations, tries to position itself as more than a sports movie. And lo and behold, it is -- sort of. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: While corny at times, this sports drama -- based on David Cook's best-selling novel -- is sure to find a welcoming audience with its down-home Christian message. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: There are no real bumps in that road, and though the drama has its heartfelt moments, it unrolls as flat as the Texas terrain, cast in an idyllic summer glow. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Like a cliche tent at the State Fair, with lessons in oil painting, fly-fishing and church to help us all find our center. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: At least watching Black fish, paint and pilot an airplane is less boring than golf. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Until Seven Days in Utopia sucker punches you with a surfeit of faith-based platitudes, its upbeat brand of golf mysticism isn't altogether unappealing. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I would rather eat a golf ball than see this movie again. Read more

Gary M. Kramer, Salon.com: "Seven Days in Utopia" is flawed in so many ways -- the editing, writing, acting and Matthew Dean Russell's direction are uniformly weak -- that this well-intentioned film does its positive messages a disservice. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: Little more than a pleasantly passable Christian sports parable delivered as a sort of Texan golfer's version of The Karate Kid. Read more

Eric Hynes, Village Voice: All those shots of heavenly shafts of light eventually climax in unabashed Christian conversion. Read more

Sean O'Connell, Washington Post: Russell's spoon-feeding of motivational nuggets turns to full-blown shoveling in the film's final minutes... Read more