Life or Something Like It

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The result is a worthy woman's film and Jolie's best showcase to date.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Manages to squeeze by on Angelina Jolie's surprising flair for self-deprecating comedy.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's dispiriting to see Jolie wasting herself (and a good supporting cast) on a story that requires little more than an average pretty actress who can wear clothes well and laugh and cry on cue.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It's cheerful nonsense from blithe beginning to obvious end.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Affable, but, as something with more ambition, it disappoints. Herek has once again found the feel-good path to mediocrity.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Amiably glossy if naggingly old-fashioned.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Life at least deserves a nod for supplying the mostly dramatic actress with her first starring comedic role.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

If the heroine really had seven days left, she wouldn't waste it watching stuff like this.

Miami Herald Charles Savage

Pseudo-profound fluff.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

This is an excellent movie for watching Jolie, one of the more entertaining sidelines in recent Hollywood movie going. There are two firsts for her here: Angelina does blonde and, more importantly, Angelina does comedy.

LA Weekly John Patterson

Jolie hogs the spotlight as usual, leaving romantic interest Ed Burns struggling to register and only Shaloub -- fetid, dirty, soulful -- with his dignity intact.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

A banal message movie.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Dimly entertaining, the sort of thing that doesn't insult you so much that you feel compelled to flee the theater, but it's too inert to be anything close to charming or compelling.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A deeply metaphysical film by contempo Hollywood standards, this middlebrow trifle may engage the emotions of a certain tier of young professional women.

USA Today Mike Clark

Life is a crock -- or something like it.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Partly a schmaltzy, by-the-numbers romantic comedy, partly a shallow rumination on the emptiness of success -- and entirely soulless.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The movie creaks and groans, weighed down by clichés.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

Director Stephen Herek certainly doesn't come up with anything, and he fails to make the swings between silliness and schmaltz smoothly.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The relentless upbeatness of Life or Something Like It wrecks the possibility of either real laughter or genuine pathos.

Slate David Edelstein

This mad prophet says it will die in a week.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's difficult to concentrate on the story. Not that there's much to concentrate on anyway.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Mostly about slapping together a bunch of clichés -- outdated clichés at that -- regarding the loneliness of ambitious women.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

This film about a career gal's date with fate careers out of control.

Boston Globe Renee Graham

Delivered with all the subtlety of a steel-toe boot, you may be galled that you've wasted nearly two hours of your own precious life with this silly little puddle of a movie.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is an ungainly movie, ill-fitting, with its elbows sticking out where the knees should be. To quote another ancient proverb, "A camel is a horse designed by a committee." Life or Something Like It is the movie designed by the camel.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

To top it off, the ending is a clumsy cheat. Of course, I was rooting for the news gal to expire and the film to die a quick death.

Village Voice Mark Holcomb

Cloaks a familiar anti-feminist equation (career - kids = misery) in tiresome romantic-comedy duds.

Chicago Reader Joshua Rothkopf

In the hands of Preston Sturges, this could have been the basis for some snappy mordant comedy, but Stephen Herek (Mr. Holland's Opus) sees only fields of corn, winding up with one of those pseudodeep stories (e.g. American Beauty) that Hollywood takes for spiritual.

TV Guide Steve Simels

The truth of the matter is that, given the thoroughly manipulative, red-herring plot twists that get her to the happy ending, most audience members will have ceased to care about whether she lives or dies long before the matter is settled onscreen.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

Say what you want about Hollywood losing its way in recent years, there's something beautiful about moviemakers who paint themselves into corners this tight.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Oh, please. Stop and smell the manure.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Every now and then, though, a movie comes up with a scene of surpassing stupidity, and then builds from that defining moment to a climax of perfect ineptitude. Life or Something Like It is such an achievement.