Not One Less

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It's an uplifting movie about the rewards of perseverance and community.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Has a slow-burning emotional power.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A beautiful and genuinely spirit-lifting film about poverty and education.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

If it touches up against the syrupy at a very few moments, it's nevertheless consistently clear-eyed and convincing.

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

The film's occasional dips into sentimental cuteness and its too-pat ending can't cancel the gap that yawns ever wider between rural and urban society.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Zhang's work is always worth watching, but this is the first of his films in which the sorrows are so heart-rending, its many comic moments so laugh-out-loud human.

Film.com Graham Fuller

Simple but charming.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Has a warmth and sweetness that is especially hard to resist.

The New York Times A.O.Scott

A splendid, assured piece of storytelling.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

In many ways, Not One Less resembles the socialist-realist dramas of the early Communist regimes.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

It's an excellent movie for kids, because it is about how amazing children can be.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A sweet, lushly photographed but occasionally slow film.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Like a Sally Field movie by Vittorio De Sica: Zhang wants to affect you with the subtle sting of his politics.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

An empowering film for children, showing them at their most capable, working through problems and finding innovative solutions to overcome what seems like an insurmountable obstacle.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

In style and story line, the film is daring in its simplicity.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

His story is simple, unadorned, direct. Only the margins are complicated.

Miami Herald Phoebe Flowers

Zhang, who tried to make his actors as unaware of the camera as possible, lets the story evolve slowly and deliberately.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This is much more than a typically one-dimensional message-movie -- it's obviously the work of a master filmmaker .

Washington Post Desson Thomson

At first, the picture is moving. . And suddenly charm turns to quasi-commie didacticism.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Use of a loosely written screenplay and a nonprofessional cast in this picture weakens its dramatic appeal even as it lends authenticity and local color.

Time Richard Corliss

To Western eyes, this meandering parable registers as a perplexity and a disappointment.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Its resolution reeks of phoniness and self-congratulation, even if some of the narrative strands leading up to it are fairly absorbing.