Critic Reviews
55
Metascore
Mixed or Average
positive
10(53%)
mixed
5(26%)
negative
4(21%)
Showing 19 Critic Reviews
90
An edgy entertainment, the movie also remarkably has the feel-good warmth of an old-time Irish film.
90
A dark and lovely drama about the complications of human connections that is Michael Keaton's impressive directing debut.
90
The film’s title, needless to say, has an ironic bite. One of the pleasures of The Merry Gentleman is Mr. Keaton's commitment to that bite, which never registers as cruel or gratuitous, just honest, weary, sad.
88
Original, absorbing and curiously moving.
88
A sly and surprisingly sublime little noir romance.
75
Without her (Kelly Macdonald), the generally well-acted The Merry Gentleman would descend into terminal lugubriousness.
75
It has been argued that for characters to be three-dimensional, they must have a past, a present, and a future, not to mention an arc. The Merry Gentleman offers a counter-argument for those who would dispute this.
70
Despite its shortcomings as a plausible, compelling story, The Merry Gentleman, Michael Keaton's directorial debut, exhibits genuine promise behind the camera.
67
If ever a film needed a double shot of espresso and a swift kick in the caboose, it's this one. At best, the film is hypnotic; at worst, it challenges--no, dares--audiences not to fall asleep.
63
It's a very small film, undermined by a puttering rhythm and Pinter-worthy pauses in the second half and a resolution neither satisfyingly oblique nor conventionally pleasing.
