Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Broken English

EMAILPRINTMagnolia Pictures

Broken English reviews
61
6.8 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Romance

Written by: Zoe R. Cassavetes

Directed by: Zoe R. Cassavetes

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 22, 2007
DVD: August 21, 2007

Running Time: 97 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

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)

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

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ellen H. gave it an8:
Maybe it's been done a million times before and the ending feels like the biggest surrender to sentimentality, but that doesn't cancel out all the good that came before: outstanding and truthful performances, story and characters that resonate universally, nuance, and compassionate storytelling. This movie is like a small compact mirror being held up in front of one woman's life, but anyone looking can draw comparisons to their own.

sarah s gave it an8:
Broken English is a chick-flick, but it's a good one. Posey is gut-wrenchingly believable as an insecure & neurotic 30something, the art direction is fantastic. But there is a key moment in this film when it stops being just chick-flick stuff and starts becoming something more magic. I dont think I would have enjoyed it as much if it weren't for that. I will definitely keep an eye out for KC's flicks.

Mel S gave it a6:
Sad. Good acting, but slow and sad.

Aliya A gave it a10:
Awesome realistic movie.. had a touch of emotion, anxiety, artistic.. great acting!

Marc K gave it an8:
Well-directed, well-written, well-acted. Maybe I'm just in the tiny sliver of people that James Berdanelli says will really like this movie. Parker Posey is pitch-perfect in a very soulful film.

Chad S gave it a7:
This is not "Manhattan". This is not "Before Sunset"(or "...Sunrise"). "Broken English" makes reference to both; in particular, the pair of Richard Linklater films that made Julie Delpy look like the most desirable woman on the planet. If "Before Sunset" was a conventional Hollywood pic, copying the ending would make sense, since "Broken English" isn't a formulaic romantic comedy. But neither was the Ethan Hawke vehicle. Both movies are "art films". Nobody swoons in Paris. More amusingly, Nora and her friend Audrey(Drea de Matteo) act as couriers, but a Jean Pierre-Melville film fails to materialize. The music is distinctly dissonant. There's no jazzy or cafe-inspired score. "Broken English" missteps when it draws attention to the Linklater film because this prosaic romp through France pales in comparison. On its own terms, however, "Broken English" is a modest success. It's an anti-romantic movie about finding love...with a romantic ending.

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.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use