The Salt of Life
Metascore
65 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 17
  3. Negative: 2 out of 17
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  1. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    Apr 19, 2012
    83
    This being an Italian film, and Gianni being such a hapless, kindhearted aspiring Lothario, make this perhaps the sweetest movie ever made about a guy trying to cheat on his wife.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    Mar 8, 2012
    80
    Rueful, funny and wise, The Salt of Life is a comedy not of errors but of the tiniest of missteps. A warm yet melancholy film of quiet yet inescapable charm, it has a feeling for character and personality that couldn't be more delicious.
  3. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    Mar 3, 2012
    80
    On the surface, The Salt of Life may seem like a movie made just for old folks. The trick is that it really is about the youth that stays with you, even when your aging body is working hard to convince you otherwise.
  4. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    Mar 1, 2012
    80
    Mr. Di Gregorio wrote the screenplay with Valerio Attanasio, and this movie is a richer variation of his small, exquisite 2010 film, "Mid-August Lunch."
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    Mar 31, 2012
    75
    The film is full of low-key but telling observations, mostly about Gianni's plight but also about modern life in general.
  6. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    Mar 28, 2012
    75
    This is a movie about a man who is past his shelf life. Sooner or later, he'll end up sitting in front of that cafe with the other guys. He knows it.
  7. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Alison Willmore
    Feb 29, 2012
    75
    The breeziness of The Salt Of Life disguises a barbed consideration of mortality and being written off, becoming part of the scenery in later life - just another elderly man with a dog, watching the world go by.
  8. NPR
    Reviewed by: Mark Jenkins
    Mar 2, 2012
    70
    The Salt of Life is easygoing and naturalistic, but clearly a work of imagination.
  9. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Pinkerton
    Feb 28, 2012
    70
    Di Gregorio's performance sets the tone of dim hope and quiet forbearance, telling the story through reactions: an ever-accommodating smile that shades into a wince; sparkling, heavy-lidded eyes betrayed by vexed brows.
  10. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Natasha Senjanovic
    Feb 28, 2012
    70
    In The Salt of Life, the actor-writer-director again plays his own alter ego, and gives us another deceptively small, vaguely autobiographical story with universal resonance, in more technically assured packaging.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Jay Weissberg
    Feb 28, 2012
    70
    Di Gregorio's dialogue and performers are once again marked by a spontaneity and ease; who else working today treats so-called "middle age" with such jocular honesty?
  12. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    Apr 5, 2012
    63
    Overall, The Salt of Life has more bite but less charm than "Mid-August Lunch."
  13. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    Mar 15, 2012
    63
    The Salt of Life is about that moment in a man or woman's life when members of the opposite sex stop seeing them, and while the mood is jauntily sensual, the undertow is fierce.
  14. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Calvin Wilson
    Apr 20, 2012
    50
    Episodically structured and lethargically paced, the new film attempts to convince us that there's something incredibly charming about an old guy who makes a habit of ogling young women. Actually, the whole scenario is pretty creepy.
  15. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: David Fear
    Feb 28, 2012
    40
    Unfortunately, he's retained his previous work's touristy mondo italiano! vibe, all whimsical tunes and postcard scenery, while piling on enough ogling shots of nubile young women to make Hugh Hefner feel uncomfortable.
  16. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Bill Weber
    Feb 27, 2012
    38
    A dry dream of postmenopausal-male sexual lethargy, this comedy's least musty ideas are among its worst.
  17. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    Apr 4, 2012
    30
    This Italian import may have greater resonance for the men of Casanova's native land than it does internationally, but it definitely hits on truths infrequently addressed in the movies.

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