| 100 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Manages the rare feat of being both bleak and deeply rewarding.
|
| 90 |
Chicago Reader
Some delicately interwoven and unresolved subplots help make the young character's rite of passage wholly, disturbingly compelling.
|
| 88 |
Baltimore Sun
A movie of unforced nobility and quiet pleasures, Butterfly works on all sorts of levels.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
May be a bit sentimental for some, but I found its patient examination of how the forces of optimism can be overwhelmed by a wave of cruelty to be both moving and wise.
|
| 88 |
Christian Science Monitor
A powerful ending lends a strong emotional charge to this prettily filmed drama, but too much of the story is taken up with romantic clichés about the everyday challenges of childhood.
|
| 88 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Has a saccharine quality but also offers a memorable performance by famed Spanish actor Fernando Fernan Gomez.
|
| 80 |
Time
A savory cocktail with a bitter twist.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
A beautiful, harrowing film of understated power and perception that affords Fernando Fernán Gómez, the Spanish cinema's great, weathered veteran, yet another of his unforgettable performances.
|
| 80 |
Dallas Observer
The movies' time-honored old-man-and-boy theme has rarely been used to such great advantage.
|
| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
Diverges to become something quite powerfully unnerving and guilt-ridden.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Because the film marches so inexorably toward its conclusion, it would be unfair to hint at what happens, except to say that it provides a heartbreaking insight into the way that fear creates cowards.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Butterfly doesn't require much knowledge of history to appreciate, but it really isn't suitable for very young audiences either.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Outside national borders, this naive vantage point is an entry into a country's history and culture, explaining without seeming patronizing.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
An exploration of how fear and mob rule can poison even the purest of souls.
|
| 70 |
Mr. Showbiz
The story is a pleasant one despite its pointed righteousness.
|
| 70 |
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
The film's climax was only one of several moments that left me utterly verklempt, without ever knowing that my buttons were being pushed.
|
| 70 |
The New York Times
Delicate, quietly devastating.
|
| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
It's a rare film that can make us look so deeply into the dark soul of the seemingly benign.
|
| 60 |
Village Voice
It's boilerplate Miramax: a sentimental import with lovingly photographed Euro locale.
|
| 58 |
Portland Oregonian
The film isn't terrible, it's just trying too hard.
|
| 50 |
LA Weekly
The family flags palpable agony... provides the movie's only earned emotional tension.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
Though beautifully photographed, acted and written (the three source stories are skillfully blended into a single narrative), this leisurely, bittersweet look at a child's loss of innocence ends rather abruptly and inconclusively.
|
| 20 |
Film.com
In the end, Butterfly is an infuriating film because it's so very contrived, so annoyingly phony.
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