The Art of Getting By

The movie turns lighter and less morose as it rolls along, which is good for viewers who prefer a bit of honey to offset the bitter taste of hormones.

Pleasant and well-acted and easy to watch.

I found myself forgetting The Art of Getting By as it unfolded, as though the Looney Tunes art department were two steps behind the characters, rolling up the scenery like so much carpeting.

A formula picture made by someone who doesn't even believe in the formula - he knows it all has to work out, we know it all has to work out, and he can't even muster an ironic wink for our trouble.

A screen romance that echoes its title. It gets by. Barely.

The Art of Getting By is distinguished by a dullness that's almost akin to being in high school again.

Flaccid, endlessly irksome coming-of-age drama.

Despite the negative feedback I quite liked the film. Sure it has characters that have been done to death but it has a lot of heart, which is achieved through the likability of the lead, Freddie Highmore. Not an amazing flick, but enough to keep me interested to watch til the end on TV, which is an achievement for these types of film

The movie is interesting and is dragged along kicking and screaming by the leads who carry there parts well but it seems to lack something and conforms far too much to a typical teen/coming of age film.

As a lot of people have said, it's not as bad as the critics make out... I put it on late at night as I wasn't bothered if I fell asleep watching it. However, I was surprised that I sat through it. It was warming, romantic, humorous (if not a little pretentious) in places, another "How cool are New Yorkers film". The eye candy that is Emma Roberts made the film more watchable, and good soundtrack too. Average... mheh, easy viewing.

This is just a thoroughly confusing movie. There are so many ways it could have gone, but each time it is about to go in an interesting direction, it is restricted by some innate desire of the director to stick to cliches. If you want to see a plain mindless teen-love movie this is great, but anyone who keeps hoping for some originality ends up cringing from from the constant reversion to cliches.

I agree with Bullet97 - it's not terrible, but it's the casting of Freddie Highmore which ultimately kills it. He looks like an infant compared to the smoldering Emma Roberts. You feel bad for the kid, but seriously, they needed a guy that actually looked a bit more like a high school senior that would get into this situation. And casting the jailed dad from Gossip Girl to play essentially the same role here as the guy's step-dad? Poor. So.. once you realize it's going to be bad, you start to have fun with it. I laughed. For some reason, a group of girls in my Santa Monica theater gave it a round of applause at the end. What's that about? Hmmm.... The music? (Wasn't bad - good Pavement song.)