Down To You

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

A pleasant addition to the time-honored genre of terminally cute youth romance movies, roughly equivalent to staring at a saccharine greeting card for a while.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

Ostensibly a story about first love in college, and I never believed a frame of it.

New York Daily News Robert Dominguez

Just another cutesy, rather toothless comedy about the pitfalls of first love.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Latest Freddie Prinze Jr. vehicle stalls at on-ramp.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

No one expects a light teen romance to be "Madame Bovary," but this is Colorforms filmmaking.

Boston Globe Vanessa E. Jones

Prinze charming, but can't save movie.

Film.com John Hartl

A Boring Young Couple.

Film.com Robert Horton

Floating this material slightly above the assembly-line level is the energetic cast and the efforts of writer-director Kris Isacsson.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The best the makers of Down to You can hope for is that girls in their early teens--clearly the film's target audience--will be so carried away by its charismatic stars that they'll overlook the film's various flaws.

TNT RoughCut Graham Verdon

Ah, young love. It can be quaint and heartwarming, but is largely inconsistent and painful -- kind of like this movie.

Philadelphia Inquirer Chriss Hewitt

The highlights of the movie are a great song, Sam Phillips' "I Need Love,'' which comes at the end, and Stiles' affecting crying scene.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

There's nothing wrong with Down to You that a smart script and savvy direction couldn't cure.

Variety Brendan Kelly

Something oddly appealing about this mushy romantic tale, but first-time feature writer-director Kris Isacsson doesn't have the skills to raise it far above its formulaic foundation.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Stinko movies often unwittingly critique themselves -- and the brain-dead romantic comedy Down to You (which Miramax understandably didn't screen in advance for critics) is no exception.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Extremely good-looking people tend to be shallow, self-involved and not very bright. Let's call this statement what it is: a form of prejudice, a stereotype. It is, sadly, a stereotype that Down to You does everything in its power to promote.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Prinze and Stiles regularly talk to the camera, but that doesn't make their characters self-aware.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Neither character seems especially insightful, and their intense focus on the self and the terrific delicacy of their feelings comes to feel narcissistic and annoying.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

The confusion it mistakes for true soul-searching is about as realistic a look at the politics of youthful attraction as one of those "Did somebody say McDonald's?" commercials is a look at mainstream American family values. Did somebody say McCheese?

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

For the audience, it's like watching the dreckiest of teen puppy courtships trying to pass itself off as ''Annie Hall.'' La-de-blah.

Newsweek Ted Gideonse

A disaster: dull, predictable, at times cringe-worthy.

LA Weekly John Patterson

One of those puppy-love movies that make you feel like you're slowly drowning.