War of the Buttons
Metascore
40 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 14
  3. Negative: 4 out of 14
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  1. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    Oct 19, 2012
    75
    Moving without being melodramatic, War of the Buttons is a tale of the worst -- and the best -- that people of all ages are capable of.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Sheri Linden
    Oct 12, 2012
    60
    Though it's handled with little subtlety, the way the atmosphere of suspicion in Vichy France filters down to the kids is a smart slant on the material.
  3. NPR
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    Oct 11, 2012
    60
    War of the Buttons deftly folds France's unsavory collusions into a rather more rousing tale of resistance. I don't doubt that some of these heroics happened. But the way they're framed conveniently takes the edge off saying sorry.
  4. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    Nov 1, 2012
    50
    War of the Buttons is handsomely crafted and it's touting tolerance, but as long as we open the gates to the Trojan horse of historical simplification, there's a danger that Hollywood could attack us with "The Goonies Go to the Gulag." Be vigilant!
  5. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Tom Russo
    Oct 25, 2012
    50
    But when there's such a lighthearted, boys-at-play manner about the story's established aspects, it creates an odd disconnect from the World War II tolerance lessons that the filmmakers seek to add. War and persecution are bad, kids - except when it's all in good fun.
  6. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    Oct 18, 2012
    50
    War of the Buttons means well. But ultimately there's only marginally more edge to this treatment of World War II than there is to the average episode of "Hogan's Heroes."
  7. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    Oct 11, 2012
    50
    To be fair, War of the Buttons is a film with a modest agenda. It does not attempt to provide a complete or even vaguely realistic depiction of the rural French resistance in the endgame to World War II. Instead, it provides a fable.
  8. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Alison Willmore
    Oct 10, 2012
    42
    The use of a real war to give added emotional heft to this already potentially manipulative story make this film an act of callous calculation behind the beautiful shots of the French countryside.
  9. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Barbara VanDenburgh
    Oct 23, 2012
    40
    For a movie that aspires to be heartwarming, it sure does inspire a lot of eye rolling.
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  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Rachel Saltz
    Oct 12, 2012
    40
    The slick filmmaking - the movie has a glossy, Hollywood-ready feel that sometimes tips into the cutesy - works against its themes.
  11. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jon Frosch
    Oct 9, 2012
    30
    Of course, everyone in the film - aside from one or two conspicuous villains - turns out to be a resistant, making an otherwise harmlessly corny movie something slightly more bothersome: a revisionist fantasy of French heroism.
  12. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    Oct 11, 2012
    25
    The parallels between the kids' war and the real one are made far too obvious by Christophe Barratier, who made the equally treacly "The Chorus" and infests the movie with nonstop musical goo.
  13. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Sam Adams
    Oct 9, 2012
    20
    That War of the Buttons shows no insight into how a nation's will could be so easily subdued is disappointing; that it shows no curiosity on the subject is inexcusable.
  14. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Calum Marsh
    Oct 10, 2012
    12
    By the time the drama is wrapped up with a bow and every child has learned a valuable life lesson, even the gap-toothed little tyke there solely for comic relief has begun to grate.

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