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Ira & Abby
Magnolia Pictures

Ira & Abby reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 62 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.6 out of 10
based on 15 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 5 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexual content

Starring Jennifer Westfeldt, Chris Messina, Jason Alexander, Frances Conroy, Fred Willard, Judith Light, Robert Klein, and Maddie Corman

Ira and Abby is a sweet, hilarious, and slightly subversive romantic comedy. It examines the issues of marriage, monogamy, and whether "I do" is the only path to lifelong love and happiness. Ira Black is brilliant, neurotic, Jewish, and has so many issues he can't fit them into 12 years of analysis. Abby Willoughby is a free spirit who works in a gym and is better at solving her friends' problems than selling memberships. When the two meet, the impossible happens: They fall in love, meet each other's parents, and decide to get married--all in a few breathless hours. And life is good--for a while--until a series of comic misadventures (multiple divorces, in-laws, affairs, exes, and too many therapists) force the couple to rethink their strategies. (Magnolia Pictures)


GENRE(S): Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Jennifer Westfeldt  
DIRECTED BY: Robert Cary  
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: September 14, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

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...

80
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Not only delightfully funny but unaffectedly romantic.
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75
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The film may be slight, but it is not stupid, and director Robert Cary keeps both stickiness and shtickiness at bay.
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75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
Westfeldt's screenplay and Cary's direction combine to make it the best Manhattan love story since "When Harry Met Sally."
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75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Works its way under your skin, and then into your heart.
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75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Isn't as sharply directed as "Jessica Stein," but it's still a formidable crowd-pleaser.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand
A similar blend of comedy and a grumbling skepticism about the essential goodness of human beings makes Ira & Abby feel, at times, like one of those great stage comedies of yesteryear transferred to the screen.
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70
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Though playing at times like an extended sitcom, Ira & Abby radiates a breathless charm, due in no small part to Ms. Westfeldt’s sharp dialogue and engagingly unmannered performance.
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70
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
To do rough justice to this special treat in not much space, let me first stipulate that it evokes any number of Woody Allen films, thanks to its therapy-centric characters and its Upper West Side milieu.
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70
Los Angeles Times Jan Stuart
This round-robin of marital malaise has a lot more integrity than one might anticipate from its meet-cute beginnings.
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67
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
It's still a mixed bag with a lot of cutesy awfulness to wade through, but the acerbic ending is enough of a punchline to suggest that Westfeldt understands what a joke this kind of film can be.
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50
Variety John Anderson
Starts off deliriously, is derailed into reality, and finally settles into something in between.
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50
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
It's all too zany and madcap and Woody Allen-redux to be remotely credible, but Ira & Abby turns out to be witty and winning, in large part because of its cast.
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50
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Neurotic New Yorkers, messed up relationships, inept analysts, infidelity -- Ira & Abby has them all, and it's anything but refreshing to trudge through this well-worn territory again.
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40
Village Voice Julia Wallace
The overall effect is that of an aging vaudevillian making a good-hearted but embarrassing attempt to entertain us with stock characters and stock jokes and stock shtick.
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38
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
A stale rehash of Woody Allen-style "he's a neurotic Jew, she's a flaky shiksa" gags.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ken G gave it a3:
A wanna-be Woody Allen type movie, but maybe only Woody Allen, can do "Woody Allen" well. Just not funny, witty clever, or insightful enough to make it worthwhile. And neither of the leads are all that good. The male lead in particular, seems miscast.

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