Ballad of Jack and Rose, The

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Miller's theme is innocence, the loss of it, and the reclamation of equanimity in the face of that loss, and the music she makes is haunting.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Powered by an exceptional performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, this artfully disturbing film is a compelling, imaginative look at the potent emotional bond that forms not between romantic lovers but between fathers and daughters.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A stinging elegy for lost American dreams.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Daniel Day-Lewis may be one of our great actors, but he trips over a few Method-acting speed bumps in wife Rebecca Miller's third writer-director effort.

Newsweek David Ansen

Day-Lewis, who imbues Jack with a ravaged, Keith Richards charisma, is once again extraordinary.

Time Richard Corliss

The film doesn't scale Shakespearean heights, but it does give its star a nicely gnarled ogre to play.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

A fascinating, highly literate film.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Doesn't succeed in everything it sets out to do, which is a lot. But as a statement about the death rattle of 60s counterculture it's both thoughtful and affecting, and Daniel Day-Lewis is mesmerizing.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

We leave this movie hoping to see Miller and Lewis together again soon.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

An absorbing experience.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

A gut-punch of a movie, a potent, mesmerizing drama.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Smart and engrossing, if too heavy on the symbolism at times.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Camilla Belle is an impressive newcomer - this could be her breakthrough appearance.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

A difficult movie. Its obvious, heavy symbolism, glaring soundtrack and top-heavy themes threaten to make it implode, but it's saved by its performances.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

One of those passionately atmospheric movies, like Jane Campion's "The Piano," that sounds idiotic on paper, but whose ambiance, charged with eros, rage, regret and optimism, is strangely moving.

Premiere Peter Debruge

One of those novelistic independent films more concerned with atmosphere and character than the particularities of narrative, where contemplating the backstory is more satisfying than anything we see.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Phenomenal acting, plus intelligent direction and themes, put The Ballad of Jack and Rose above other indie films about loss of innocence. At the same time, there is something garish about watching a father and daughter struggle with the snake of incest in their ill-advised Garden of Eden.

New York Post Kyle Smith

If one enjoyed manufacturing symbols as much as Miller, one might speculate that Rose is Rebecca Miller, aching to be her own artist, and Jack is Arthur.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

But the film disappoints, partly because it inspires such large expectations.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Has density enough for several films. What's missing is spontaneity, and variety. And, throughout most of the narrative, velocity.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

By the time it reaches its fiery finale, the film feels less mythic than self-consciously portentous.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Shaky story and predictable developments make this an off-key ballad.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Well-wrought individual scenes and sharply focused acting provide Rebecca Miller's third feature with a measure of gravity, but too much abrupt, even melodramatic behavior and undigested psychological matter leave nagging dissatisfactions.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Day-Lewis is as rooted as an oak in his character and milieu, yet easefully disengaged from the film's pensive histrionics.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A self-conscious attempt at the brass ring.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Often seems less like a fully realized film than an illustrated story, its paragraphs reduced to neatly contrived set pieces.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

"Velocity" told multiple stories, each lasting half an hour, but "Ballad" wears out one tale before its end.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Miller has crafted some intriguing, complex characters and stranded them in a muddled story that doesn't know quite what to do with them.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

I feel prodigious emotion underneath the pretty, preserved features of The Ballad of Jack and Rose, channeled into a vehicle that's a half-successful imitation of "You Can Count on Me" or "In the Bedroom."

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Strong performances and Miller's equivocal stance toward her characters save the movie from its symbolic overload and melodramatic crash course, but in the end there may be less here than meets the eye.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

If only Miller's writing had some human zest. Nearly everybody here is crunchy, salt-of-the-earth organic, and off in a dreamland.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

An engaging battle between terrific acting and a flawed script.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

Might not have been a bad film if its characters never said anything and some obnoxious visual metaphors were removed.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Ms. Miller has attempted to elevate a small Oedipal story about two damaged souls into a grandiloquent epic, Shakespeare by way of Bob Dylan. She misses by a significantly wide mark, largely because she loves her monster too much and his victim too little.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Some good Bob Dylan songs are called in to underline the big moments, but end up eclipsing them instead. There's more drama and insight in a snippet of "One More Cup Of Coffee" than the entirety of Jack & Rose.