The Romantics 2010

Stephen Holden, New York Times: A formulaic rom-com with an Ivy League pedigree and a higher-than-average SAT verbal score. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The Romantics gets much of the female chitchat right, from catty asides to sisterly chase-fights in bare feet. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: What ensues is a couple of days of confession and mild debauchery. It's all sketchy and banal. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's possible that Niederhoffer was too close to her novel to stand back from its excesses. She's made a seriously self-indulgent movie about self-indulgent people. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Clumsy camera work adds to the pre-wedding jitters in writer-director Galt Niederhoffer's pashmina-thin drama about attractive self-congratulatory Yale alumni gathering for the nuptials of two of their own. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: Proves unsatisfying not only because of its unlikable characters and often contrived conflicts but for the thoroughly implausible bride and groom at its core. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: Niederhoffer wears her influences proudly on her sleeve, but crosses that line between homage and mimicry, making it difficult to hear her own voice as a filmmaker. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Holmes is completely implausible as an insecure outsider, while Paquin isn't nearly threatening enough as her perfect rival. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: With its tart dialogue and its perfect ending, it is sensitive as well as sagacious. It's a rare combination. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The all-night orgy of stupidity that ensues is so contrived that instead of examining friendships and love, it only made me wish they had all drowned, saving us from 95 minutes of wooden, boring and inconsequential embarrassment. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Instead of Rachel Getting Married with an Oscar-nominated Anne Hathaway, we get Galt Niederhoffer's misbegotten, miscast snoozefest with Katie Holmes struggling to prove that there is life as an actress while still being Mrs. Tom Cruise. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A middling little movie that tries to trespass on Bergman-Renoir territory and simply isn't adroit enough to pull it off... Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: The script fails to establish the likability of any of the main characters, which dulls the sense of urgency during the dramatic moments. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: [It] somehow skirts utter loathsomeness by dint of its elegant camerawork and a few finely tuned performances. I'm not suggesting you run out to the theater and see this, but if it comes on cable someday and you have a big pile of laundry to fold... Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The Romantics is a misnomer. "The Spoiled Melodramatics" would be more accurate. Or better yet, "The Pretentious Ones." Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: [It plays] as an elementary game of who-gets-who musical chairs, involving nasty behavior among pretty and thoroughly unconvincing aesthetes. Read more