Metacritic Film

My Brother

Starring Vanessa Williams, Nashawn Kearse, Tatum O'Neal, Fredro Starr, Christopher Scott, Rodney Henry, Donovan Jennings, and Nasser Metcalf

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for violence, some disturbing images and language

Codeblack Entertainment
Drama
100 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters March 16, 2007

My Brother is an inner city, New York story of two impoverished boys, one whom is developmentally disabled, and the bond they have for each other. (Codeblack Entertainment)

WRITTEN BY
Anthony Lover

DIRECTED BY
Anthony Lover

Overall Metascore

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

33 / 100

Critic Reviews

50 TV Guide
The first half of Lover's film is surprisingly affecting...But the film comes apart in its second half, when James' flight triggers a long series of flashbacks to the brothers' childhood.
40 Los Angeles Times Sam Adams
My Brother is brimming with would-be life lessons. But the movie goes in so many directions, and follows through on so few of them, that all it transmits is a vague glow. It's watered-down chicken soup for the soul.
40 The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz
The movie's strongest element is the chemistry between the reflective Mr. Kearse and Mr. Scott (who really has Down syndrome). Improving on its obvious antecedent in "Dominick and Eugene," their relationship feels real, not like a movie contrivance.
40 Variety Peter Debruge
A heavy-handed redemption story.
30 Village Voice Scott Foundas
Writer-director Anthony Lover takes such a kid-gloves approach to his handicapped co-star that he achieves the opposite of the intended effect: Every time Scott enters a scene, it's as if someone just told the entire cast "Whatever you do, don't say 'retard.' "
30 Washington Post
What it possesses in heart and goodwill, it sorely lacks in narrative skill and artistic depth.

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