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O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Metascore
69 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 30
  3. Negative: 3 out of 30
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    A wildly original movie with astonishingly varied moods and influences.
  2. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    100
    It's a wild, whacked-out wonder. Coenheads rejoice.
  3. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    90
    From moment to moment, O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a pleasure. But when the Coens are really cooking, when the acting and the conception and the music all come together, it's something more -- Dogpatch rapture.
  4. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    90
    Clooney has become a movie star, and the Coens have given him his very own "It Happened One Night." The man, and the movie, are downright bona fide.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    90
    It is, all in all, a rambunctious and inspired ride in which the Coen brothers' voracious fascination with the arcana of American popular culture and their whiz-kid inventiveness reach new heights of whimsy.
  6. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    90
    It's a new new thing, classic myth from both literature and the movies, commingled, set to great folk music, and untrammeled by any sense of predictability, urgency, realism or believability but hypnotic, graceful and seductive.
  7. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    88
    Devilishly delightful.
  8. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    80
    This time around, though, the Coens' usual arch deliberateness isn't quite as deliberate, and there's an appealing shagginess to some of the episodes and performances.... This is the Coen brothers' most emotionally felt movie, and that's not meant as faint praise.
  9. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    80
    All I can say is this particular excursion into screwball madness is often heavenly, and frankly leaves critical explication somewhat unnecessary. Go see it and laugh.
  10. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Sean Means
    80
    The risk pays off for Clooney and the Coens, as O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a nicely off-kilter exploration of American gumption.
  11. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    Enlivening things to an unprecedented extent, the songs turn O Brother into perhaps the warmest production in the Coens' repertoire.
  12. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    80
    Toss in enough gorgeous bluegrass music to make the movie's CD a must-have, and you have prime, picaresque entertainment.
  13. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    80
    A charming, if lightweight, Coen brothers escapade flecked by plenty of visual and performance grace notes.
  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    80
    As a Coen brothers fan I hate to say this, but the movie's a collection of great bits and pieces rather than a complete work.
  15. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    78
    A remarkable film. From its performances on down to director of photography Roger Deakins' sun-baked, dirty-ochre cinematography, the film is all of a piece.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    75
    The film is worth seeing for George Clooney's performance. More than ever he seems like a Clark Gable for our time.
  17. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    75
    Joyously unhinged and outrageously inventive.
  18. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    A clever and satisfyingly abundant entertainment.
  19. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    64
    For all its originality, O Brother doesn't seem to have a point, or enough spark to distract us from the lack thereof.
  20. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    63
    O Brother contains sequences that are wonderful in themselves--lovely short films--but the movie never really shapes itself into a whole.
  21. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    63
    Not quite as funny as it wants to be. Mostly, it's just silly. But as always, the Coens are entertaining themselves first.and their quirky individuality has served them and their fans well so far.
  22. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    63
    Of all unlikely possibilities, the team has finally made a movie that, for them, is on the tepid side.
  23. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    63
    While it displays its share of quirky charm, off-kilter characters and outlandish situations, this is really the first film where you can feel the Coens straining to keep up with themselves.
  24. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    60
    Often clever but fundamentally shallow, this shaggy-dog story is greatly enriched by its extraordinary bluegrass soundtrack, supervised by T Bone Burnett and performed by a phenomenal collection of artists.
  25. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    60
    The art direction is impeccable, but this is a pop-up book that I was impatient to slam.
  26. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    For all its ambitions, though, the Coens' odyssey is a scattershot affair with too many tricks and twists for its own good.
  27. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    Remains naggingly hollow, a cerebral exercise in whimsy that isn't nearly clever or funny enough to seem like more than grand self-indulgence.
  28. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    20
    After making their two best features to date, "Fargo" and "The Big Lebowski," the Coen brothers have surely come up with their worst.
  29. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    12
    Whenever the music subsides and the characters speak the Coens' lines, the film turns back into mush.
  30. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    0
    Why would filmmakers with this much talent work this hard to thumb their noses at everything they put on screen?
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.2 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 109 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 44
  3. Negative: 2 out of 44
  1. JordanP
    10
    This may be the only movie that has ever left me seriously tempted to leave the cinema and immediately join the queue for the next show. Structurally, it is a 'road movie', though it borrows the episodic encounters with larger-than-life characters from Homer's Odyssey (including sirens and a cyclops!). But the artful combination of its photography and music with delightful story and characters makes this one of most bewitching and beautiful road movies ever made. The critics seem to find it shallow, though I struggle to understand why. In addition to being genuinely funny and centred upon rich characters, the story includes a fair weight of political satire and a sprinkling of the Coens' strange metaphysical fascinations, with the Devil making his own cameo in the form of a lawman. If this is too shallow, I wonder what comedies the critics have been watching that are so deep? If people are confusing depth for emotionalism, perhaps they should stick to rewatching the English Patient.… Full Review »
  2. heyitsmegrif4
    6
    O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a beautifully filmed, hilarious, wild, amazingly original film featuring just fantastic performances from its three consistently funny leads. I give this film 61%.… Full Review »
  3. Halfwelshman
    8
    While it may not be among the Coen Brothers' finest work, O Brother Where Art Thou is an intriguing and original viewing experience. It's a road movie like no other, based on the ultimate adventure story, The Odyssey. There's so much to like about the film - the plot is wacky, the soundtrack a wonderful mix of American folk, and the Great Depression-era world is inhabited by weird and wonderful characters (including George Clooney's verbally dexterous, pomade-haired scoundrel Everett - perhaps his finest on-screen role to date). The Coens give us a rollicking good time right until the end, when a silly finale and some disappointing narrative tie-ups and underwhelming character payoffs threaten to ruin our fun. As a whole though, it's a vastly entertaining film, and only a little shy of the top pantheon of Coen Brothers films.… Full Review »
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