62
Metascore
39 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100HitfixDrew McWeenyHitfixDrew McWeenyJohn Carney, who wrote and directed "Once," has made another great film that focuses on songwriters and the way their lives influence their work.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe film’s quiet pleasures creep up on you.
- 80VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeA film that lays emotions on the line and then drives them home with music.
- 80EmpireEmpireBegin Again is a joyous movie about the good things in life: love, family, relationships, New York, creativity and music. And Knightley and Ruffalo make for one of the most unusual engaging couples of the year.
- 75Slant MagazineDavid Lee DallasSlant MagazineDavid Lee DallasIt's a film that lives in the high and not in the comedown, even though its characters are often stalled and wallowing.
- 50The PlaylistKevin JagernauthThe PlaylistKevin JagernauthSince the music doesn't connect like it should, everything else that is underpinned in the story by these songs also doesn't come together with the weight or power Carney surely intended.
- 50Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlVillage VoiceAlan ScherstuhlAll that prickly inner conflict Ruffalo is so adept at suggesting? Cheery Begin Again wants none of it, offering instead lots of scenes of two characters we don't believe could ever exist arguing about authenticity in pop music.
- 40The GuardianPaul MacInnesThe GuardianPaul MacInnesThe film's sole saving grace is, of course, Ruffalo.
- 35Film.comLaremy LegelFilm.comLaremy LegelA film that inserts banal plot devices and endless cutesiness in place of where the “good parts” should be.