Metascore
44 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 27 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 27
  2. Negative: 5 out of 27
  1. Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    80
    Given that this holiday film season has come up more than a little short on love and laughter, one can easily forgive Kate & Leopold the slightly excessive lengths and complications to which it goes in search of those rare commodities.
  2. 75
    Meg Ryan does this sort of thing about as well as it can possibly be done, and after "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail," here is another ingenious plot that teases us with the possibility that true love will fail, while winking that, of course, it will prevail.
  3. For the first half-hour I, too, demurred. And then the irresistible force that is Hugh Jackman -- or was it his swoony Leopold? -- swept me off my seat and into the movie.
  4. Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    It's a charmer.
  5. 70
    This winning confection, from a director (Heavy, Cop Land) not known for the lightness of his material or his touch, shows a fine understanding of what the screenwriters of the '40s instinctively grasped, that good screwball is about dialogue and chemistry.
  6. It's no myth: All play and no work makes Jackman, as Leopold, a doll of a boyfriend.
  7. Has its heart in the right place -- and in a season filled with somber or goopy Oscar contenders, it makes a perfectly decent date movie.
  8. 60
    Director and co-writer James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted) is supplying comfort food for bruised romantics.
  9. Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    50
    The role of Kate, a spunky but romantically unfulfilled marketing expert, seems made for Ryan. Unfortunately, Ryan no longer seems made for it.
  10. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    Lacking in originality.
  11. 50
    Once it settles down, it becomes a star-making vehicle for Jackman, and a supremely polished example of the sort of swoony love story cherished by women who secretly hope that some day their prince will come.
  12. 50
    There's no question that Meg Ryan is the queen of romantic comedies. Yet for every piece of frothy fluff that works -- there comes a couple where you just want to say, "Enough already." Kate & Leopold is one such movie.
  13. A flawed time-travel love story, benefits from Meg Ryan's reliable perkiness and establishes Australia's Hugh Jackman as a potent romantic leading man. These and other pluses, however, cannot overcome the film's inability to come alive for a full hour and 20 minutes.
  14. Has only the most tangential relation to reality, and therein lies its slender charm.
  15. Reviewed by: Lael Loewenstein
    50
    A time-travel romantic comedy whose best elements -- Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman -- overcome distracting plot holes, loose threads and assorted contrivances to make for a mostly charming and diverting tale.
  16. Not very believable, even in relation to its own premises, but if you were charmed by "Somewhere in Time" and/or Jack Finney's novel "Time and Again," this might charm you as well.
  17. 42
    America's favorite romantic comedian is miscast in Kate & Leopold -- a disappointment with the warm and charming Jackman around.
  18. Progressively sabotaged by poor technical quality, terrible plotting, a glaring lack of directorial skill and finesse, scenes that have no credibility and/or motivation and an astounding sloppiness to its historical detail.
  19. There's nothing terribly wrong with Kate & Leopold -- it's just an awfully conventional upmarket romantic comedy.
  20. 40
    The problem with Kate & Leopold is that although this is supposed to be a romantic comedy, the best scenes are the ones in which there's no Ryan.
  21. Reasonably entertaining time-travel romance.
  22. 40
    Mangold gets stuck in the gooey sweet spots of his tale a little more often than he breaks loose with a bracing jolt of perversity.
  23. An oppressively cute Manhattan time-travel romantic comedy that’s lost in time, space and cliches.
  24. Has the sex appeal of a Road Runner cartoon, one-tenth the laughs and equal plausibility.
  25. 30
    It just isn't a Meg Ryan movie unless she's got male.
  26. 20
    The shabby metaphysics and complete absence of internal logic are perhaps meant to charm, but only add to the eye-gouging irritant factor.
  27. Is Meg Ryan going to play the goofy romantic gal forever?
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. 7
    Honestly! I thought it was hilarious! Nothing like that gruesome humour of There Is Something About Mary (that I can't stand) or Borat (ewww)! Thank Goodness we can still laugh, with classy stuff! a 7 in its genre! Delightful for sure! I love all the performances! Nevertheless, this is something I didn't totally like: Leopold falls in love with Kate far too quickly! We needed to see the romance developing a bit more. There should always be a transition on this matters. I did enjoy the film, indeed, but at times it was a bit corney for me...and I am a girl (very feminine but not girly-girl). Thumbs up, anyway! Full Review »