Metacritic Film

Romulus, My Father

Starring Eric Bana, Franka Potente, Marton Csokas, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Jacek Koman

MPAA RATING: R for sexuality, some violence and brief language

Magnolia Pictures
Drama
104 minutes | Color
Australia
Released In Theaters February 29, 2008

Romulus, My Father is based on Raimond Gaita's critically acclaimed memoir. It tells the story of Romulus, his beautiful wife, Christina, and their struggle in the face of great adversity to bring up their son, Raimond. It is the tale of a boy trying to balance a universe described by his deeply moral father amidst the experience of heartbreaking absence and neglect from a depressive mother. It is, ultimately, a story of impossible love that celebrates the unbreakable bond between father and son. (Magnolia Pictures)

WRITTEN BY
Nick Drake

DIRECTED BY
Richard Roxburgh

Overall Metascore

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

57 / 100

Critic Reviews

70 Wall Street Journal
The film succeeds on the strength of the boy, and the remarkable young actor who plays him, Kodi Smit-McPhee.
70 Los Angeles Times
For all its sad moments, Romulus, My Father is a love story between father and son kept aloft by unalloyed admiration.
63 ReelViews
This is a workmanlike motion picture with solid performances. It's just that the superior production values are used in service of a mediocre storyline.
60 Variety Russell Edwards
Warmly felt but haltingly told meller Romulus, My Father holds the attention with fine perfs and exquisite lensing, but never really grips the imagination.
50 San Francisco Chronicle
The performances are the best part of this uneven film.
40 LA Weekly Tim Grierson
Admirably unsentimental about the ravages of poverty and mental illness on the foundations of family. But soon the endless succession of heartaches that visit Gaita's brood -- including multiple suicide attempts and romantic betrayals -- becomes monotonous and unbearable, the cinematic equivalent of someone slowly pressing his thumb into your forehead.

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