Tic Code, The

Film.com Tom Keogh

Director Gary Winick ("Sweet Nothing") ingeniously complements Draper's layered approach by modulating the film's energy in fascinating ways.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Reveals real feelings.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Starts out self-consciously but gets better as it goes along, winding up as affecting as it is illuminating.

New York Post Hannah Brown

Sounds bleak, but turns out to be an absorbing and lively film.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Has the schematic feel of a disease-of-the-week TV movie, but the connections made between jazz and the minds that produce it turns the film into something much more intimate and compelling.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Badly lit and at times, awkwardly inspirational, yet there's real feeling in it, especially when the movie suggests that Tourette's syndrome is every bit as pure an expression of the spirit as it is a ''disorder.''

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The little film is made uniquely engaging by the performance of its young star, Chris Marquette.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

If it seems to have the ingredients of an after-school special, the performances take it to another level. Gut level.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

I value the flawed Tic Code over a good many relatively flawless features because it has more heart, more life, and more spunk.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

Works better as a sociological study than as a gripping drama.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

An honest, plainspoken and unsentimental movie.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Laura's histrionics sometimes seem forced, and Hines has to struggle to be the heel the screenplay sometimes asks him to be.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

A sympathetic but conventional disease-of-the-week movie.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Like most movies that examine specific ailments, this gawky, occasionally touching film has the feel of a dramatized case history whose purpose is to educate as much as it is to tell a story.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

What at first seems emotionally charged, ultimately comes off as contrived.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Preachy and predictable, an afterschool special in all but name.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Not entirely persuasive, not entirely schmaltzy, "The Tic Code" is one of those well-meant dramatizations... that mysteriously made it all the way to a theater near you.