Uptown Girls 2003

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: Gives chick flicks a bad name. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: About a young woman who goes to work for and eventually befriends the most obnoxious child ever to exist on this planet. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: ... a disaster. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: The screenplay is by the numbers. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: [A] standard variation of the princess myth. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Director Boaz Yakin ... keeps shying from the darker material like a studio-trained racehorse, heading for the safer turf of slapstick and schmaltz. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: A consistently strained effort. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Though Murphy is radiant, and her laughs are infectious, her free-spiritedness is thrust in our face like a pointy object in a 3-D movie. Read more

Denver Post: Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: [An] ungainly Manhattan fairy tale. Read more

Matthew Hays, Globe and Mail: When Uptown Girls isn't trying to play up its wacky high jinks ... it stoops to the kind of psychological character development films this shallow should really avoid like the plague. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: It's possible that Uptown Girls will supplant Gigli as the summer's biggest joke. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: [A] horribly misguided movie. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Uptown Girls lacks the urban specificity that helped to make The World of Henry Orient such an uptown-girl classic, but it works up a sentimental tug that should moisten the eyes of many a moppet and mom. Read more

Bob Campbell, Newark Star-Ledger: Yakin shuns caricature. His affection for all his feckless characters, even Fanning's narcissistic mom (Heather Locklear), is evident. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Combine two mannered performances with a script intent on achieving maximum cuteness, and you've got one wince-inducing sugar rush. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Though I found Mr. Yakin's direction unexpectedly imaginative, and the script often incongruously subtle, I couldn't get into the spirit of all the whimsy, the reason being the surprising lack of charm in the two leads. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Murphy's performance has a kind of ineffable mischievous innocence about it. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: A modern fairytale that loads up big-time on the girly trappings but doesn't give you much in the way of plot or characters or even plain old sense. Read more

C.W. Nevius, San Francisco Chronicle: There's more than a hint of desperation to Murphy's characterization. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: When Uptown Girls is released on DVD, its commentary tracks should consist of a single looped phrase: 'We're truly sorry.' Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Can two over-pampered but fundamentally lonely persons of the blonde female persuasion bond meaningfully with each other while shopping? Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: An embarrassingly silly exercise that mostly serves as a platform for Brittany Murphy to model a fab wardrobe and glam hairstyles. Read more

Amy Dawes, Variety: A light, occasionally charming and reasonably well-crafted tale about a transforming female friendship. Read more

Laura Sinagra, Village Voice: Locates Fanning's 'maturity' in a fear of germs that comes off as borderline psychotic, and Murphy's childlike free spirit in her apparent inability to avoid walking into walls. Read more