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The Baxter
Metascore
51 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 22
  3. Negative: 3 out of 22
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  1. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    No great shakes, The Baxter nonetheless has a quiet loopiness going for it. And it has the absence of a laugh track going for it, too.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    The Baxter is just an OK movie, but Showalter's performance is the gem to take from it.
  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ed Park
    70
    A sign of The Baxter's charm is that it's essentially spoiler-proof: We know from the get-go which couples will pair off, and the pleasures lie in the spring-stepped vibe, the natty throwback wardrobe, and the intricate goofball patter.
  4. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    70
    The performers are fresh and offbeat, with the diminutive Peter Dinklage (Elf, The Station Agent) especially funny as a gay wedding planner named Benson Hedges.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    63
    Modest and polite. That's not a ringing endorsement of Michael Showalter's good-natured comedy, but there are enough laughs in it if you're willing to settle.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    63
    A self-consciously arch work of hipsterism that's more styled than funny.
  7. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    60
    This wry, low-key comedy, crafted by members of the sketch-comedy group The State, swims defiantly against the stream of contemporary comedy, eschewing bodily-function jokes and obvious gags in favor of laughs so sly and self-effacing you could almost overlook them.
  8. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    60
    A tender love story and a dead-on lampoon of the genre, but its main drawback is that Showalter is egregiously miscast in the title role.
  9. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Van Gelder
    60
    In the end, The Baxter is a Baxter of a movie: well meaning and mildly likable, but unlikely to sweep you off your feet.
  10. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    A wheel-spinner. The more the film stresses and strains to be funny, the unfunnier it gets.
  11. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    The problem with The Baxter is right there at the center of the movie, and maybe it is unavoidable: Showalter makes too good of a baxter. He deserves to be dumped.
  12. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Allison Benedikt
    50
    Michael Showalter is a funny man, but … how to put this gently … not a funny movie star.
  13. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    50
    The film never recovers its initial fizzy-pop charms, owing largely to pacing that turns positively molasses-slow in the second act.
  14. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    50
    "The Station Agent's" Peter Dinklage provides diversion as a gay wedding planner.
  15. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    50
    There's no comic spark under Showalter's drab direction, and no good argument in the film why we should ever wonder about the guy left at the altar.
  16. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Tim Grierson
    50
    A movie filled with cardboard cutouts where the interesting characters ought to be. As a result, The Baxter is less engaging than the '40s screwball comedies (like The Philadelphia Story) that it's supposedly sending up, and not nearly as effervescent.
  17. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    50
    That's ultimately the film's fatal flaw: it bumps Showalter's Baxter up to the role of the romantic lead without giving him an equivalent increase in complexity or depth.
  18. Variety
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    50
    May find a following among those who stand in awe of the names Sandler, Ferrell and Spade. But Showalter pushes too far: Nerdiness, after all, can be only so attractive.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    40
    With The Baxter, Showalter's begging his way into the ranks of the safe and the mediocre.
  20. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    38
    As coincidence would have it, Steve Carell's "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" spun comedy gold from a similar idea just last week. Virgin shares not only The Baxter's basic premise, but also two of its key cast members (Paul Rudd and the beautiful Ms. Banks), allowing audiences to see just how much better The Baxter might have been if Showalter had given us some reason to identify with his socially awkward protagonist.
  21. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    25
    A zero-joke romantic comedy.
  22. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    25
    The Baxter is so ineptly conceived, staged, written and played that you suspect it's part of a psychology experiment to see if people will laugh at anything.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6
  1. TomV.
    10
    This is the most innovative romantic comedy that I've ever seen, with witty writing to match the unique plot. The acting is solid all around, but special praise goes to Michelle Williams for a character that is shy and assertive in just the right blend.… Full Review »
  2. GregS.
    3
    I'm a huge Showalter fan, specifically Stella and Wet Hot American Summer. I'm not oppossed to him making a more serious type of film, it's just sad to watch him do it so poorly. The premise is interesting, but the execution is awkward, halted, and at times completely unbelieveable. The only funny parts are when it's obvious the very talented Paul Rudd, David Wain, and Michael Ian Black are ad-libbing. Showalter should have handed this script to a more capable director, and then watched from the sidelines.… Full Review »
  3. MarkB.
    6
    I almost always root for the baxter. A baxter (which is a term invented by and for this movie) is the nice but underwhelming guy that the leading lady in romantic comedies dumps for the leading man. The all-time classic baxter is, of course, Ralph Bellamy (The Awful Truth, His Girl Friday); Don Ameche, Rudy Vallee and Franchot Tone have played more sophisticated variants; frequent more recent baxters have included Bill Pullman and, surprisingly, Pierce Brosnan in his pre-007 days. (Katherine Hepburn's social-climbing fiance in The Philadelphia Story and the fraternity guy that Katherine Ross deserts for Dustin Hoffman AFTER saying "I do" in The Graduate don't count as baxters because they're supercilious, chauvinistic creeps--and are conventionally handsome enough to have no problem finding somebody else.) I've sometimes wondered why at least some movie women weren't perceptive enough to realize that perhaps solidness, dependability and lifetime companionship might perhaps equal or beat orgasms that feel like the 4th of July and Halley's Comet combined, and that maybe baxters are better choices in the long run. Which is why I loved writer-director-star Michael Showalter's idea of making the baxter the central chatacter and telling the whole stoty from his point of view...until I actually saw the movie that emerged from it and realized that this is another one of those concepts that looks great on paper but on screen, not so much. Showalter proves to be a good enough actor (his Elliott is of necessity rather one-note, but still sufficiently sympathetic and appealing), a haphazard screenwriter and a very clumsy director. He tries too hard to express the same idea in too many different ways--the focus should be on Elliott, but there are far too many other baxters in the movie, including one who beat the odds and married the girl anyway; the problematic flashback structure includes all kinds of OTHER confusing flashbacks and flashforwards; scenes that start off as clever and amusing are dragged on past any point of interest; scenes in which Elliott's dream-girl fiancee (Elizabeth Banks) calls off and then resumes the wedding are methods of unnecessary torture for both Elliott and the audience since we already know how things are going to turn out. Most frustrating of all is that Elliott's true soulmate--sweet, smart, lovable wallflower Cecil, played by sweet, smart, lovable anything-but Michelle Williams (whom I still remember fondly from the underrated satire Dick as a high schooer who, with Kirsten Dunst, was infatuated with a certain, controversial US President)--is constantly put on hold while everyone in the audience is way ahead of Elliott in realizing that she's the one for him (and, quite frankly, for most of the rest of us!) This is what makes the predictable twist-on-a-twist ending so ultimately hollow (if you see it and ponder its implications for a few moments, you'll know what I mean); while watching the credits, I thought of at least two other ways for Showalter to get the same results in a far more satisfying and meaningful manner. Perhaps Showalter (or preferably someone else) can try the concept again, casting the adorable Williams as sort of a female baxter: a woman who, like the late Barbara Bel Geddes in Vertigo or Cynthia Stevenson in The Player, is undervalued and mistreated by the male lead because she's far too good for him. And I've got a name for the character and the movie, too: "The Georgette".… Full Review »
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