CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

85 Alexandra
40 America the Beautiful
66 American Teen
74 Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
65 August Evening
xx Bachna Ae Haseeno
62 Baghead
58 Beautiful Losers
xx Beer for My Horses
47 Before the Rains
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
56 Bottle Shock
75 Boy A
55 Bra Boys
61 Brick Lane
64 Brideshead Revisited
47 Burn After Reading
61 Bustin' Down the Door
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
54 CSNY: Déjà Vu
xx Cthulhu
86 Edge of Heaven, The
66 Elegy
52 Elsa & Fred
80 Encounters at the End of the World
26 Everybody Wants to Be Italian
64 Fall, The
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
82 Frozen River
71 Girl Cut in Two, A
62 Girls Rock!
xx Goal II: Living the Dream
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
54 Hamlet 2
25 Hell Ride
44 Henry Poole is Here
76 I Served the King of England
72 I.O.U.S. A
63 In Search of a Midnight Kiss
46 Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
67 Jellyfish
62 Kabluey
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
78 Last Mistress, The
50 Last Stop for Paul
70 Love Songs
61 Man Named Pearl, A
89 Man on Wire
62 Mister Foe
85 Momma's Man
74 Mongol
46 My Mexican Shivah
80 Order of Myths, The
66 Patti Smith: Dream of Life
54 Ping Pong Playa
77 Pool, The
72 Priceless
61 Red
71 Roman de gare
78 Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
51 Savage Grace
55 Save Me
73 Secret, A
57 Sixty Six
58 Sukiyaki Western Django
xx Surfer, Dude
83 Tell No One
56 Then She Found Me
71 To the Limit
72 Transsiberian
81 Trouble the Water
83 U2 3D
86 Up the Yangtze
79 Visitor, The
61 Wackness, The
54 What We Do Is Secret
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
67 XXY
54 Year of the Fish
xx Young People F**king
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Broken English
Magnolia Pictures

Broken English reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 61 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.5 out of 10
based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some sexual content, brief drug use and language

Starring Parker Posey, Melvil Poupaud, Drea de Matteo, Justin Theroux, Gena Rowlands, Peter Bogdanovich, Tim Guinee, and Josh Hamilton

In a startling mature and nuanced performance, Parker Posey plays Nora Wilder, a thirty-something Manhattanite who is cynical about love and relationships, in this astute collaboration with first-time writer/director Zoe Cassavetes. (Magnolia Pictures)


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Zoe R. Cassavetes  
DIRECTED BY: Zoe R. Cassavetes  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: August 21, 2007 
Theatrical: June 22, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic), 2007 Sundance Film Festival

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

88
Miami Herald Peter Debruge
Broken English takes 30 minutes to do what most romantic comedies manage with a simple montage. That's a good thing, by the way.
Read Full Review
75
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
The movie needs more incident and complication; it's modest to a fault.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
As a director, Cassavetes is a keen observer of character and social interaction but not yet much of a visual stylist (which might also describe the improvisational dramas made by her actor/director father, John).
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
A pleasantly disposable romantic comedy starring the once and future indie-queen Parker Posey.
Read Full Review
75
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
As charmingly verklemmt New York women with bad luck in men and good luck in apartments go, Nora Wilder in Broken English has all the breaks.
Read Full Review
70
The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz
A well-acted, smartly directed film that’s depressing because it could have amounted to so much more. It departs from the studio-financed romantic-comedy template in just one, unfortunately fatal respect: it makes a point of pride out of rejecting cliché, then swoons into its embrace.
Read Full Review
70
The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
Demonstrating that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, the screenwriter-director has delivered a well-observed film boasting highly realistic performances and dialogue, if not plot elements. But it's Posey's fascinating portrayal of a thirtysomething Manhattan single woman looking for love that lifts the film above its "Sex and the City" predictabilities.
Read Full Review
70
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
A wry, charming romance about a New York woman who has given up hope of finding love.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Dennis Harvey
A pitch-perfect lead performance by Parker Posey and debuting feature writer-helmer Zoe Cassavetes' deft, low-key approach raise Broken English a couple notches above the usual run of lonely-single-woman-seeking-romance-in-the-big-city yarns.
Read Full Review
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
There's not a lot of story here and the dialogue lacks the snap one usually gets in New York stories of affluent young adults, but the characters have an authenticity.
Read Full Review
67
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
This movie belongs to Posey, and her nuanced performance makes Broken English a worthy adventure.
Read Full Review
63
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Both neurotic and endearing, it's so carefully accessorized you may not even notice that, at heart, it's a standard-issue romantic comedy.
Read Full Review
63
Premiere Glenn Kenny
It's the stuff of countless advice columns, daytime talk shows, sitcoms, romantic comedies. Quite frankly, it's tired. What makes a difference here -- although really not enough of one -- is the people.
Read Full Review
63
ReelViews James Berardinelli
It's the kind of film that will resonate only with a tiny fraction of the available audience. Unless a viewer's age and situation mirrors that of Posey's Nora Wilder, odds are that this movie will generate a sense of déjà vu.
Read Full Review
63
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
For all its impeccable indie credibility, writer-director Zoe Cassavetes' bittersweet romance is little more than a hipster chick flick in which the same old smart women make the usual foolish choices.
Read Full Review
63
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Posey is a delight throughout, and Zoe Cassavetes is clearly a filmmaker to watch.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Cassavetes, who wrote the script, proves her skill with actors in this woozy push-and-pull of slurred compliments and shaky hopes for whatever lies beyond the next day.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
There is a very good movie named "Before Sunset" that begins more or less where this one ends. Which tells you something right there.
Read Full Review
63
Boston Globe Ty Burr
A conventional New York-lonely hearts story made watchable by one element and one element only: Parker Posey.
Read Full Review
60
Film Threat Jamie Tipps
What began as an interesting character study ends in convention, offering only the most clichéd platitudes in summation. You can't find true love until you love yourself? Hasn't Dr. Phil been telling us that for years?
Read Full Review
60
Village Voice Michelle Orange
Posey remains touching as the woman with happiness in sight but bewilderingly out of reach.
Read Full Review
60
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Despite its schizophrenic nature and often disagreeable characteristics, Broken English has flashes of something. You might say it has an integrity of purpose, if not of execution.
Read Full Review
50
The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
Given the gift of Posey at the peak of her powers, Cassavetes squanders her star in low-key, go-nowhere conversations, shot without flair and drained of any improvisatory energy.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Broken English doesn't break any code or offer original insights on the subject. But there's a spark whenever Posey and Poupaud are together.
Read Full Review
50
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Almost nothing that's said or done here is convincing. And the energy is set at near-coma level.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
How Posey's neurotic, self-destructive heroine finds her way to healing is the core of this generous film, whose moral is that happiness can't begin unless you're open to its possibility.
Read Full Review
50
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
If Broken English occasionally falls prey to a bit too much self-conscious lethargy, it's still a welcome chance to see Posey at her flighty, edgy best.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Joep K. gave it a1:
Bad movie, none of the actors were convincing, no humor and the story was as simple as any chickflick could possibly be. Probably one of the worst movies I saw in the last couple of months.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
The ultimate chick flick that guys will love too. Parker Posey is adorable despite all her neuroses.

Blanco A. gave it a7:
Parker Posey is outstanding and entirely believable in this small-yet-funny & intriguing little film. It's great to see Drea de Matteo again in a solid role.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: Fantasy Football | Miley Cyrus | MLB | iPhone 3G | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use