• Starring: David Jensen, James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, Melissa Leo
  • Summary: Welcome to the Rileys is a powerful drama about finding hope in the most unusual of places. Once a happily married and loving couple, Doug and Lois Riley have grown apart since losing their teenage daughter eight years prior. Leaving his agoraphobic wife behind to go on a business trip to New Orleans, Doug meets a 17-year-old runaway and the two form a platonic bond. For Lois and Doug, what initially appears to be the final straw that will derail their relationship, turns out to be the inspiration they need to renew their marriage. (Samuel Goldwyn Films) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 29
  2. Negative: 3 out of 29
  1. Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    Dec 11, 2010
    75
    Stewart's intense, courageous performance as a 16-year-old New Orleans prostitute is really something special.
  2. Reviewed by: Richard Mowe
    Oct 28, 2010
    60
    The film wears its heart on its sleeve, but the drama falters when the tone grows over-earnest; additionally, Scott's direction fails to exert a tight grasp on his material.
  3. Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    Oct 28, 2010
    30
    This dreary drama telegraphs every punch, emotion and plot point with a dedication that would have done the old Western Union proud.

See all 29 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 20
  3. Negative: 2 out of 20
  1. After hearing about this movie on Twitter for about a year, it finally opened in NY and I got my chance to see it. I can safely say there is not an once of Bella Swan in Kristen Stuwert's performance. Her character Mollary is dirty, broken and gritty. Stewert brings us along for the ride fearlessly. James Gandolfini brings new life to himself with a midwestern dialect and a very kind but damaged soul and makes you forget all about Tony Saprano from the door. However, the standout performance was Michelle Leo. Her evolution with this character is Oscar worthy and leaves nothing but the need to root for her. Director Jake Scott seems to take special pains not to exploit the Mollary character by using shodowing and artistic camera angles in which the audience gets the idea without the gratuitous cheap shots lesser directors must've used to cheapen the story. All in all, if you love really good strong movies with heart and soul this movie is a must see . If your looking for Twilight...wait till next year. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. This movie was very well done and I was thoroughly pleased. When I first heard of it, I wasn't sure what it was really about, however, the previews for this movie drew me and I was drawn from the get-go. I saw the movie this weekend after hearing about it for a number of months and I was emotionally drawn in from the beginning and through the end. The cast's performances were incredible and James Gandolfini as well as Melissa Leo create an experience of compassion. Kristen Stewart's performance was outstanding and powerful. I'm always intrigued by her work as she truly is a talented actress. I look forward to seeing more of her work. This movie is a must see and I hope more people will get to experience its depth, power and real-life humor. Truly fantastic! Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. I've been a long time metacritic user but never felt compelled to sign up for an account to review a movie until now. The reason is simple, I first came to metacritic as an IMDB refugee. I was fed up with the abuse of the rating system and found solace in metacritic's even keel and good mix of user and critical reviews. I never felt compelled to add my own review or ratings because they were fairly close to what other users and critics had rated them. That was until I came across this movie. I'm usually leery about any movie that had such poor critical reception as a 50, but the 8.9 in user reviews swayed me into watching it. It's now clear to me that astroturfers and teenage fans have infected metacritic as well. The infestation is unsettling to me because this was one of the last few corners of the internet where I felt I could receive a fairly unbiased and objective viewpoint on a movie before watching it. Needless to say, that does not appear to be true any longer. If you'll scan the user reviews, you'll notice that all of them came in a 3-day span and all seem to say the same thing. I'm sure that a couple of them are genuine but the rest are duplicates and some haven't even seen the movie, but just wanted to artificially inflate the rating. As for the movie itself? Dreadful. Very slowly paced, horribly acted, poorly written. Everything from the direction to the cinematography was very stiff and wooden. Absolutely no originality and definitely no emotion. The 3 points are given for a valiant effort on Gandolfini's and Leo's behalf but even they should have realized a poor script when they saw this. Utterly disappointing on so many levels. This is my vain attempt to restore credibility to metacritic's User Score. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 20 User Reviews