Straight Story, The

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Its simplicity belies an emotional complexity that will linger in your mind like a gentle dream.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

All the actors are good, but it's Farnsworth's brilliantly simple performance that brings The Straight Story so close to greatness.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A great, haunting film; it affects us in ways we're not used to...it is capable of both lifting our hearts and chilling us to the bone.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The most atmospheric thing in the movie is Farnsworth's face.

USA Today Mike Clark

The best news the G rating has had since the ratings system was instituted in 1968.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Farnsworth's embodiment of old American values, with their combination of delicacy, reserve, and stand-alone independence, is a one-of-a-kind treasure.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

A momentously, shockingly moving fit of shape-shifting by a filmmaker grown tired of the macabre.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A beautiful, appropriately loping little gem about growing older, daring to take risks and follow your heart. That probably sounds corny, and The Straight Story is.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The first time I saw The Straight Story, I focused on the foreground and liked it. The second time I focused on the background, too, and loved it.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The Straight Story truly is one from the heart, and it is wonderful.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Lynch's first movie since ''Blue Velvet'' that truly envelops you in its spell. It's a piece of celestial Americana -- his journey to the light side of the moon.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Lynch takes us on a journey of shattering understatement -- a remarkable accomplishment.

Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman

Clear-eyed and open-hearted, The Straight Story (which is based on reality) tells a simple tale, and it does so with a rare, blessed simplicity.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Cuts a path directly to the heart.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Switching gears radically, bravely defying conventional wisdom about what it takes to excite moviegoers, Lynch presents the flip side of "Blue Velvet" and turns it into a supremely improbable triumph.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Lynch's first G-rated feature, turns out to be one of the year's best films...a wonderful surprise.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

If there is any justice in the world, Farnsworth will be remembered at Oscar time.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

I loved it...Without trying very hard, Farnsworth commands a unique and immensely appealing screen presence that could be called "a compilation of all the great western heroes of the movie past."

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The wonderful Richard Farnsworth plays the lead, and he was clearly born for the part...a highly affecting and suggestive spiritual odyssey.

Film.com Peter Brunette

Richard Farnsworth shines as Alvin Straight, a role, one gets the feeling, that he has been preparing for all his life.

Variety Emmanuel Levy

Lynch has directed his most satisfyingly disciplined movie.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

And now in The Straight Story, no director has been so buzzingly alert to the emotional lives of those people or to the beauty of the world they inhabit as David Lynch.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

Indeed heartwarming, though not simplemindedly so.

Time Richard Corliss

Alvin's tragic memories give perspective to the triumph of his trek, even as Farnsworth's weathered brilliance makes this movie a G as in gem.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Oddly enough, this uncharacteristic offering from a director whose name instantly evokes a very particular kind of film -- call it postmodern American gothic -- is also one of his best.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Lynch's faith in the kindness of human nature has been renewed, yet thankfully he's never maudlin. Instead, he wins over our emotions with the film's understated beauty.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

As slow-moving as the voyage it portrays,...a surprisingly complex view of contemporary life beneath its good-natured surface.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

An engaging yarn and a moving character study, but it's also a sweet, sad glimpse of everyone's future.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Too mannered and weird around the edges to be convincing.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Sunny as The Straight Story appears, Lynch is still defamiliarizing the normal.

LA Weekly John Patterson

Inspirational...unfolds gently with an evenness and rural patience.

TNT RoughCut Graham Verdon

A snail-paced story in all of its glorious ... slowness.