Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding
Metascore
45 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 25
  3. Negative: 5 out of 25
view
per page
  1. New York Observer
    Reviewed by: Rex Reed
    Jun 13, 2012
    75
    Pop songs, beautiful bucolic scenery and the joy of watching Jane Fonda fizz in a fun role that looks like a no-brainer are elements that a skilled director like Australia's polished Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) blends with perfection.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    Jun 6, 2012
    75
    An undemanding formula picture that's a lot of superficial fun and not much more.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    Jun 7, 2012
    70
    It's not "On Golden Pond" by any stretch, but it is nice to have Fonda back in the fractious family way.
  4. Variety
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    Jun 4, 2012
    70
    May not be great cinema, but its broad, crowdpleasing qualities should make it a welcome night out for femmes.
  5. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    Jun 7, 2012
    63
    A crowd-pleasing comedy that isn't going to win any awards for originality.
  6. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    Jun 7, 2012
    63
    A touchy daughter and her feely mom form the emotional axis of Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding, a touching, feeling, touchy-feely series of emotional encounters that generate much warmth in Bruce Beresford's balloon-light family comedy. If it were any lighter, it would float away.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    Jun 7, 2012
    60
    Peace, Love and Misunderstanding has a place for everybody in its heart-of-gold band.
  8. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    Jun 4, 2012
    60
    The saving grace to the utter predictability in Christina Mengert and Joseph Muszynski's screenplay is reasonably personable characters and spirited acting by director Bruce Beresford's cast.
  9. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    Jun 7, 2012
    55
    None of it quite works, but it seems Beresford did his damnedest to try to pull it off.
  10. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    Jun 8, 2012
    50
    There's a great movie to be made about the survivors of Woodstock Nation and their children. But in order to make that movie, you first have to respect the ideals of that generation enough to at least give them their due.
  11. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Sara Maria Vizcarrondo
    Jun 8, 2012
    50
    It's a great (if middle-of-the-road) family comedy to seek out.
  12. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Bilge Ebiri
    Jun 7, 2012
    50
    It also comes as little surprise that she (Fonda) knocks the part out of the park, even if the film around her leaves something to be desired.
  13. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    Jun 7, 2012
    50
    Stylistically a formulaic, middle-drawer television movie about intergenerational strife and forgiveness. Every plot turn is groaningly predictable. But at least the lead performances set off sparks.
  14. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    Jun 7, 2012
    50
    Keener alone finds the truth between the lines of this routine affair. She can't do much about the lines she has to say out loud, but as all first-rate screen performers realize, words are only part of the story.
  15. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    Jun 7, 2012
    50
    The script is so pre-determined it seems generated by a computer program, not human beings.
  16. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Alison Willmore
    Jun 6, 2012
    50
    Olsen, so good in "Martha Marcy May Marlene," is stuck playing a judgmental scold, while Wolff waves a video camera around and insists he wants to be Werner Herzog.
  17. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Andrew Schenker
    Jun 4, 2012
    50
    What saves the film from being simply a schematic mother-daughter reconciliation drama is both the reluctance and prickliness that Catherine Keener brings to her character.
  18. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    Jun 7, 2012
    40
    The only rewards, and they are real albeit insufficient, involve watching Jane Fonda in full cry and Catherine Keener in a quieter fullness of feeling.
  19. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: David Fear
    Jun 5, 2012
    40
    Only the mighty Fonda cuts through the claptrap; the rest is just a long, predictable trip.
  20. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Melissa Anderson
    Jun 5, 2012
    40
    An incompetently structured film that pits hippies against squares with the usual wearying results.
  21. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    Jun 8, 2012
    38
    It's like "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the Catskills.
  22. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    Jun 6, 2012
    33
    So let's hear it for the giant wig of Pre-Raphaelite gray corkscrews planted on the noggin of Jane Fonda as a glamorous hippie grandma. The hairdo meets its match in the dull Ann Taylor togs encasing Catherine Keener: That's how you know Granny's daughter is an uptight lawyer.
  23. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    Jun 7, 2012
    30
    How long do you have to be gone to make a triumphant return to the screen, and how triumphant can your return be when all three movies are duds?
  24. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    Jun 8, 2012
    25
    The fact that Grandma is played by Jane Fonda, flouncing around in natural fabrics, should tell you something. It should tell you there is no casting decision or character nuance or plot turn too obvious to indulge.
  25. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    Jun 7, 2012
    25
    Me, I'm a Johnny Rotten man, so this limp culture-clash comedy with a heart of patchouli just made me want to stab my eyeballs out.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 2 out of 2
  1. lancekoz
    3
    Yow, this was a dreary, long, contentious ride. A modern story about families in a culture clash is my thing, but this had no one in it to root for. Everyone was an unyielding stereotype and stayed that way against all odds. Drippy script, predictable traumas, mediocre acting. And it is a marketing ploy to call it a comedy. City people meet tie-dyed, small town inhabitants.....with indoor chickens.... surely this is hilarious. IT is not. I gave it a three for nice scenery and reasonable photography.… Full Review »
  2. metamotivcritic
    3
    It's hard to believe (and rather depressing) that a director who created such a beautiful, subtle movie as Tender Mercies could have devolved into one who creates such over-the-top, un-involving charactertures and stereotypes as the ones portrayed in this movie. It just goes to show (as if we didn't know) that Hollywood can turn anyone into a philistine. It was interesting to see Jane Fonda show such a commitment to her character, even when that character is a characterture (in fact, a characterture of her own youthful characterture, hence a meta-characterture). Not a great job of acting, but an impressively unselfconscious performance nonetheless. On the plus side, Elizabeth Olsen confirms the fact that even in an underdeveloped and stereotypical role she has a great movie presence (and is more than a credible actress). On the other hand, Jerry Garcia must be turning over in his grave (he was buried, wasn't he?) at the surfeit of tie-dying in this movie. Finally, the most egregious sin of the movie is the underlying Hollywood "lesson" that "romance conquers all"-- substantive political differences, bad parenting, bad hair-dos, everything is secondary to romance. And here I was trying to find the meaning of life in Nietzsche, Marx, Sartre...and it was all there in a Beatles lyric. "All you need is love"!… Full Review »
See all user reviews »