- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
100Miller's theme is innocence, the loss of it, and the reclamation of equanimity in the face of that loss, and the music she makes is haunting.
-
90Powered by an exceptional performance by Daniel Day-Lewis, this artfully disturbing film is a compelling, imaginative look at the potent emotional bond that forms not between romantic lovers but between fathers and daughters.
-
88A stinging elegy for lost American dreams.
-
83Daniel Day-Lewis may be one of our great actors, but he trips over a few Method-acting speed bumps in wife Rebecca Miller's third writer-director effort.
-
80A fascinating, highly literate film.
-
80Day-Lewis, who imbues Jack with a ravaged, Keith Richards charisma, is once again extraordinary.
-
80The film doesn't scale Shakespearean heights, but it does give its star a nicely gnarled ogre to play.
-
80Doesn't succeed in everything it sets out to do, which is a lot. But as a statement about the death rattle of 60s counterculture it's both thoughtful and affecting, and Daniel Day-Lewis is mesmerizing.
-
75An absorbing experience.
-
75Smart and engrossing, if too heavy on the symbolism at times.
-
75A gut-punch of a movie, a potent, mesmerizing drama.
-
75Camilla Belle is an impressive newcomer - this could be her breakthrough appearance.
-
75We leave this movie hoping to see Miller and Lewis together again soon.
-
75A difficult movie. Its obvious, heavy symbolism, glaring soundtrack and top-heavy themes threaten to make it implode, but it's saved by its performances.
-
70One of those passionately atmospheric movies, like Jane Campion's "The Piano," that sounds idiotic on paper, but whose ambiance, charged with eros, rage, regret and optimism, is strangely moving.
-
63But the film disappoints, partly because it inspires such large expectations.
-
63Phenomenal acting, plus intelligent direction and themes, put The Ballad of Jack and Rose above other indie films about loss of innocence. At the same time, there is something garish about watching a father and daughter struggle with the snake of incest in their ill-advised Garden of Eden.
-
If one enjoyed manufacturing symbols as much as Miller, one might speculate that Rose is Rebecca Miller, aching to be her own artist, and Jack is Arthur.
-
63One of those novelistic independent films more concerned with atmosphere and character than the particularities of narrative, where contemplating the backstory is more satisfying than anything we see.
-
60Has density enough for several films. What's missing is spontaneity, and variety. And, throughout most of the narrative, velocity.
-
50Shaky story and predictable developments make this an off-key ballad.
-
50Miller has crafted some intriguing, complex characters and stranded them in a muddled story that doesn't know quite what to do with them.
-
50A self-conscious attempt at the brass ring.
-
50If only Miller's writing had some human zest. Nearly everybody here is crunchy, salt-of-the-earth organic, and off in a dreamland.
-
50"Velocity" told multiple stories, each lasting half an hour, but "Ballad" wears out one tale before its end.
-
50By the time it reaches its fiery finale, the film feels less mythic than self-consciously portentous.
-
50Strong performances and Miller's equivocal stance toward her characters save the movie from its symbolic overload and melodramatic crash course, but in the end there may be less here than meets the eye.
-
50I feel prodigious emotion underneath the pretty, preserved features of The Ballad of Jack and Rose, channeled into a vehicle that's a half-successful imitation of "You Can Count on Me" or "In the Bedroom."
-
50Day-Lewis is as rooted as an oak in his character and milieu, yet easefully disengaged from the film's pensive histrionics.
-
50Well-wrought individual scenes and sharply focused acting provide Rebecca Miller's third feature with a measure of gravity, but too much abrupt, even melodramatic behavior and undigested psychological matter leave nagging dissatisfactions.
-
50An engaging battle between terrific acting and a flawed script.
-
50Often seems less like a fully realized film than an illustrated story, its paragraphs reduced to neatly contrived set pieces.
-
40Might not have been a bad film if its characters never said anything and some obnoxious visual metaphors were removed.
-
40Ms. Miller has attempted to elevate a small Oedipal story about two damaged souls into a grandiloquent epic, Shakespeare by way of Bob Dylan. She misses by a significantly wide mark, largely because she loves her monster too much and his victim too little.
-
30Some good Bob Dylan songs are called in to underline the big moments, but end up eclipsing them instead. There's more drama and insight in a snippet of "One More Cup Of Coffee" than the entirety of Jack & Rose.
prev
next
Page:
- 1
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 7 out of 9
-
Mixed: 0 out of 9
-
Negative: 2 out of 9
-
AmurabiM.6