Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
xx
Ninja Assassin
xx
Old Dogs
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
xx
Princess & the Frog, The
51
Road, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
World Traveler

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Bart Freundlich
Directed by: Bart Freundlich
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 19, 2002
DVD: January 21, 2003
Running Time: 104 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada / USA
Summary
RATING: R for language and some sexuality
Starring Billy Crudup, Julianne Moore, Cleavant Derricks, David Keith, James LeGros, Karen Allen, Mary McCormack, and Liane Balaban
This contemporary road movie tells the story of a restless, thirty-something New Yorker (Crudup) who, one day, simply drives off, leaving his wife, baby and home behind.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Catch That Kid The Myth of Fingerprints Trust the Man
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
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...
Variety Lisa Nesselson
Although occasionally both overwritten and overly symbolic, tale carries a satisfying emotional charge.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
World Traveler did seem completely aimless for the first third. However, once I comprehended where Freundlich was going with this, I began to really enjoy where the film was taking me.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Hank Sartin
Crudup takes a riskier path: his architect isn't very nice and is possibly irredeemable. His performance is subtle, complicated, and fresh, and it's a shame the movie doesn't live up to it.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Dan Via
Well-made, well-acted but ultimately enervating, this is a respectable effort from Freundlich.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not Credited)
Crudup is the best navigator a road movie like World Traveler can have, but even he can't single-handedly transport these goods from nowhere to somewhere.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A small story, a monodrama with a hero but no antagonists.
LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
The gorgeous Crudup is talented, but this charming asshole (more asshole than charming) is old hat for him, little more than another of the blank-eyed-loser-on-a-spiritual-quest roles in which he's been trafficking lately.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
The Crudup of "Almost Famous" was both hairier and more appealing than the tortured womanizer of World Traveler. Couldn't Cal have just stayed home, grown a mustache, and called his dad on the phone? [22 & 29 April 2002, p. 209]
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Iridescent as each of the actors is, the result is like a handful of beads without the connecting string.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
As beautiful to look at and as emotionally disconnected as its central character.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
The film is perhaps best enjoyed as a minor work with some major pluses, notably in the characterizations and in their adroit portrayals.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Beth Pinsker
The real seduction Crudup pulls off is that he makes it seem possible that the character hasn't actually done all of these awful things.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
There are moments of sudden truth in the film; Freundlich, who also made "The Myth of Fingerprints" (1997), about an almost heroically depressed family at Thanksgiving, can create and write characters, even if he doesn't always know where to take them.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Limps shallowly along.
New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
Loses significant points for its lazy story and complacent delivery.
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
The movie's single brilliant invention -- Julianne Moore as a used, contentious, profoundly odd floozy on her own magical mystery tour.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
A hopelessly stolid and distant evocation of Bob Rafelson's "Five Easy Pieces."
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Neither the screenplay nor the film's visual vocabulary begins to evoke a charged spiritual tension between the protagonist and the world.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Freundlich's postmodern road movie contains several sharply observed scenes but doesn't really add up to much.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Crudup is about as effective as anyone could be in the dreary World Traveler, but he can't keep this shallow, pretentious film from wallowing in banality and staggering self-indulgence.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A huge disappointment -- the kind of motion picture that makes you actively angry at the filmmaker for subjecting you to it and stealing two hours of your life.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Crudup gives it his best, but his character is so economically drawn, there's hardly anything there -- certainly nothing likable.
Salon.com Charles Taylor
It's hard to remember a movie that has asked us to care, without giving us reason to, about a character who is so thoroughly and relentlessly a prick.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
