Metacritic Film

Two Weeks

Starring Sally Field, Ben Chaplin, Thomas Cavanagh, Julianne Nicholson, Glenn Howerton, Clea DuVall, James Murtaugh, and Michael Hyatt

MPAA RATING: R for language, including some sexual references

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Comedy  |  Drama
98 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters December 1, 2006

Four siblings return home to their mother's house for what they think are the last few days of her life. When she hangs on, they find themselves trapped -- together -- for two weeks. (MGM)

WRITTEN BY
Steve Stockman

DIRECTED BY
Steve Stockman

Overall Metascore

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

44 / 100

Critic Reviews

67 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It's messy and painful, eased only the admirable modesty of Stockman's writing and direction.
67 Entertainment Weekly
The movie's warm advocacy of hospice, with all the dignity such end-of-life care provides, does real, influential good.
63 TV Guide
Sally Field's flawless performance as a mother whose imminent death reunites her four grown children elevates a fairly formulaic melodrama in the made-for-Lifetime mode into something considerably more memorable.
50 The New York Times
Two Weeks gets into serious trouble in its clumsy attempts to offset the sadness and anxiety with humor. This pursuit of sitcom levity contaminates a movie that might have been an American answer to the hardheaded Romanian masterpiece "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu."
50 LA Weekly Tim Grierson
Though the subdued performances every so often find a poignantly understated moment, on the whole Two Weeks feels too detached and well-mannered for its own good.
50 Los Angeles Times
Despite striking a chord in terms of sibling politics and the inelegant ways we deal with death, Two Weeks too often feels as if it's destined for heavy rotation on the Lifetime Movie Network.
50 New York Daily News
Casting choices seem oddly random (only Cavanagh and Nicholson have any familial chemistry). And the humor, which is vital to a movie this inherently grim, falls flat.
40 Washington Post John Maynard
To paraphrase her infamous Oscar speech: You will have to like Sally Field, you will have to really like Sally Field, to sit through Two Weeks.
40 The Hollywood Reporter
The script is not without some perceptive observations about family dynamics, but the problematic tone keeps getting in the way. A little absurdist levity in these instances always helps to prevent things from becoming too maudlin, but in Stockman's hands, the played-for-laughs elements in this tragicomedy feel forced rather than organic, ultimately creating an emotional disconnect with the viewer.
40 Variety
Picture veers unsteadily between melodrama and light comedy, with no confidence in either.
38 New York Post
A low-key Field is the best thing about Two Weeks, which is set in a Wilmington, N.C., where everyone mysteriously sounds like he just got off a Los Angeles freeway.
38 Boston Globe
Creaky, earnest melodrama.
25 San Francisco Chronicle
Although well intentioned, has the superficial gloss of a TV movie of the week.

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