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The Good Night
Metascore
49 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 12
  3. Negative: 1 out of 12
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  1. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    70
    Jake Paltrow's comedy takes familiar male-angst material and turns it into a painful--but fun--string of jokes.
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    70
    Though its forays into the subconscious may strike more adventurous cinematic palettes as precious and unimaginative, few will be able to resist Martin Freeman's appealing lead turn or the wry Brit wit that gives this fanciful confection a robust comic core.
  3. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    The filmmaker's got good taste -- and luck -- in casting.
  4. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    58
    Either way, it's too pretentious--or not nearly pretentious enough.
  5. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    There is a fine idea for a romantic comedy in Jake Paltrow's The Good Night but the writer-director, in his debut feature, never develops it much beyond the idea stage.
  6. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    50
    As thin and wispy as a dream you can't quite remember in the morning, writer-director Jake Paltrow's The Good Night wastes the ample comedy talent of Martin Freeman, turns his famous sister Gwyneth into a shrew, and makes you wish Danny DeVito had directed the movie instead of acting in it.
  7. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    50
    The Good Night is at heart a mediocre Sundance variation on the Dudley Moore-Bo Derek alleged classic "10."
  8. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michelle Orange
    50
    Director Jake Paltrow's feature debut has all the hallmarks of an earnest young man's feature debut, and while that is not necessarily a bad thing, I can only imagine that it fit Sundance like a fingerless glove when it had its premiere there earlier this year.
  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Jan Stuart
    50
    The Good Night has flashes of bookish wit but never quite recovers from the metronomic monotony of its first half, which ticktocks between scenes of Paltrow braying and Cruz voguing.
  10. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    40
    There's a gloomy quality to The Good Night I sort of appreciated -- much of it was shot in London, although it's supposed to occur in New York -- but after the initial acerbic setup fades, Gary becomes less and less likable and the movie evaporates into nothing.
  11. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    40
    The comedy of male midlife angst dates back at least to "The Seven-Year Itch," when it was sweet and innocent. Each time it is recycled, it gets more sour and joyless.
  12. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    38
    The movie's film-studentish navel-gazing wears thin long before its over.
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User Reviews

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User Score
6.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 10 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. ChadS.
    6
    An orchestral version of "The Universal" is featured prominently in "The Good Night", which suggest that Gary(Martin Freeman) and Paul(Simon Pegg) played in a Britpop band akin to Blur. Granted, coming up with original music that favors comparably with the likes of "Wonderwall"(Oasis) and "Common People"(Pulp) is harder than knocking off the sound and vision of f*****' Wham(as "Music and Lyrics" did last year), but c'mon, give us something more than an album jacket on a wall. The film doesn't try very hard to convince us that these television advert composers were part of a successful midlevel English band. Instead of performing sad piano ballads, Gary should be writing rock songs in his lucid dreams. With a little more ambition, "The Good Night" could've been a loosely based biography on Stuart Adamson of Big Country, who ended his life in a Hawaiian Holiday Inn. We need to see what's haunting Gary. "The Good Night" needs to show us the sold-out arenas, his girlfriend Dora(Gwynneth Paltrow) in her former incarnation as a groupie, you know, the whole kit-and-kaboodle of rockdom as it was during the early-nineties.… Full Review »
  2. LeahH
    0
    oh my god. that movie sucked sooooo bad. i was hating it after just two minutes. seriously, nothing happened during the entire movie. except when gary the douchbag got hit by a car, that part i really enjoyed, but he lived, which made the movie suck again. don't rent it. don't watch it. it will seriously waste an hour and a half of your life. it'll make you feel stupid. it sucked. don't watch it. ever.… Full Review »
  3. JayH.
    4
    I did not care for this movie. I thought it was pretentiously directed and written, uninvolving and poorly conceived. The acting is uneven. It's just not well done.… Full Review »
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