Adore
Exclusive Releasing | Release Date: September 6, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
9
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The GuardianDamon WiseJun 27, 2013
An incredibly provocative piece of work, featuring a brave and vulnerable performance by Naomi Watts (who seems perhaps a little too young) and a career-high acting masterclass from Robin Wright (who is cast perfectly). Read full review
67
The PlaylistKimber MyersSep 6, 2013
For a story with so much feeling, there’s surprisingly little emotional resonance in Adore. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireSep 6, 2013
Adore is, as my late mother would say in describing Sidney Sheldon novels, "good trash." Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreSep 3, 2013
As edgy female wish-fulfillment fantasy, showing that fantasy’s consequences, Adore engrosses and engages, never titillates and never betrays even the tiniest hint of revulsion. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 5, 2013
It falls to Wright and Watts to shoulder the heavy lifting here, and they do so with as much grace as the plot will allow. Adore isn’t the feminist medication Fontaine probably means it to be, but it’s not the unintentional laugh riot it could have been in lesser hands, either. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeySep 5, 2013
It's a challenging film, but maybe not as challenging as it should be. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 3, 2013
You can barely stifle a laugh, and the way Wright and Watts deliver rote, morally searching dialogue with deer-in-the-headlights stoicism (“We’ve crossed a line,” Lil blankly notes) doesn’t help matters. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 9, 2013
The unfairness of it all would be worth getting more worked up about if Adore were a better movie. It’s not. But it’s a fascinating one nevertheless — a case study in thwarted cinematic ambition and a cautionary tale of stylistic timidity. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoSep 5, 2013
Trying to be provocative with a capital "P," Anne Fontaine's Adore undermines itself by provoking unintended laughs. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergSep 4, 2013
The setup promises more intrigue than the film ultimately delivers. Read full review
45
NPRElla TaylorSep 5, 2013
To begin with, how painful is it to watch actors as intelligent as Naomi Watts and Robin Wright mug their way through the story of two hard-bodied middle-aged Australian besties hitting the sack with one another's teenaged sons? Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanSep 4, 2013
Adore has the distinction of featuring some of the most laughable dialogue in any movie this year. Read full review
40
The DissolveMike D'AngeloSep 4, 2013
Given the level of sophistication at which the movie operates, they might as well have called it Motherlover, after the Lonely Island video in which Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake sing about the exact same taboo foursome. The only significant difference is that the comedy in “Motherlover” is fully intentional. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 6, 2013
Working from a script by the gifted Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement), who seems to have traded his wit for a paycheck, Fontaine manages the trick of making sex joyless. Like porn. Then she tops that by draining her film of variety, longing and feminist insight. Like farce. Ouch. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerSep 5, 2013
Outré love stories are great, as are love stories that make viewers squirm. But they have to ring true emotionally, and despite its talented cast, Adore does not. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 6, 2013
Adore at its core is a bore, nothing more. Read full review
30
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 5, 2013
One of the things that makes Adore, which was written by Christopher Hampton, hard to take seriously is how seriously it takes itself, how utterly purged of humor or credible human complication the drama at its center turns out to be. Read full review
30
Village VoiceJohn OurslerSep 3, 2013
The disparity between the inherently trashy appeal of the story and the self-serious way it's presented cripples much of the potential for enjoyment. The setup screams pulp, but the film doles out stately drama. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJun 28, 2013
Everything is spelled out literally and at a stultifying pace, in a story that might have worked onscreen as either heightened melodrama or farcical comedy. Instead Fontaine, who is not exactly blessed with a light touch, opts for misplaced sincerity. Read full review
30
VarietyJustin ChangJun 27, 2013
A ludicrous melodrama that begs to be handled as an over-the-top sex farce is instead treated with the solemnity of a wake, albeit one with a rather lenient dress code. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezSep 19, 2013
Only genuinely talented people can make pictures this bad and misguided. “This whole thing is unacceptable,” Lil remarks at one point. That goes for the movie, too. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTom RussoSep 12, 2013
Just one more touch of “realism” in a sexual melodrama played so straight that it’s nuts. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundSep 6, 2013
So deadly serious and yet so goofily unbound that, in some scenes, incest truly seems like it's on the scandalous menu. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 5, 2013
Though Fontaine makes sure the beaches are sun-dappled and the women’s shared house comes off like a sandy paradise, the movie is like the early-’80s groaner “Summer Lovers” with wrinkle lines. Hooray for the freedom and beauty of older women — a demographic that deserves better than the deplorable Adore. Read full review
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