Metacritic Film

Good Night, The

Starring Penélope Cruz, Martin Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Simon Pegg, and Danny DeVito

MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexual content

Yari Film Group
Comedy  |  Drama  |  Romance
93 minutes | Color
USA / UK
Released In Theaters October 5, 2007

In The Good Night, dreaming is believing, as Gary, a once successful musician, struggles with his career and an inert relationship with his girlfriend Dora. As his work as a commercial jingle writer spirals into even more degrading depths, his best friend and former band mate, Paul, seems to find success at every turn. Gary is depressed and dejected until he meets Anna. She is everything Gary wants sexually, artistically and intellectually--she is the girl of his dreams…literally. But Gary can only be with Anna in sleep which consequently sends him on a quest for more frequent slumber. With the help of a new age guru named Mel, Gary shuns reality for the comfort of his dreams even as the troubles of his waking life increase. (Yari Film Group)

WRITTEN BY
Jake Paltrow

DIRECTED BY
Jake Paltrow

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

49 / 100

Critic Reviews

70 New York Magazine
Jake Paltrow's comedy takes familiar male-angst material and turns it into a painful--but fun--string of jokes.
70 Variety
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.
67 Entertainment Weekly
The filmmaker's got good taste -- and luck -- in casting.
58 The Onion (A.V. Club)
Either way, it's too pretentious--or not nearly pretentious enough.
50 Los Angeles Times
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.
50 New York Daily News
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.
50 New York Post
The Good Night is at heart a mediocre Sundance variation on the Dudley Moore-Bo Derek alleged classic "10."
50 Village Voice Michelle Orange
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.
50 The Hollywood Reporter
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.
40 The New York Times
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.
40 Salon.com
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.
38 TV Guide
The movie's film-studentish navel-gazing wears thin long before its over.

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