Critic Reviews

• Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times

  Innocence meets experience, unconvincingly, in the strained redemption drama "33 Postcards."

• Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post

  Were it not for the staccato bursts of violence, this Chinese-Australian co-production about how an adorable orphan brings love into the life of a hardened convict would feel like a film from Hayley Mills' heyday.

• Neil Genzlinger, New York Times

  It's all in the name of heartstring tugging, and the film, directed by Pauline Chan ("Little White Lies"), does that pretty well.

• Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

  There's no explaining the presence of Guy Pearce in Pauline Chan's sappy, atonal family drama. But it's easy enough to understand why he looks so uncomfortable throughout.

• Rex Reed, New York Observer

  Just when you think it can't get any more sentimental or tack on any more plot detours, the film attempts a clumsy cultural détente as the Chinese children's choir sings "Waltzing Matilda."

• Inkoo Kang, Village Voice

  The script's programmatic feel-goodery smooths out everything strange and noteworthy about Dean and Mei Mei's relationship into an unmemorable and unconvincing blandness.

• David Noh, Film Journal International

  The "oh-so-innocent waif and big old baddie" odd-couple formula dates back to D.W. Griffith, but this muddled effort does nothing to merit its questionable revival.

• Jamie S. Rich, Oregonian

  The film has a few good story turns up its sleeve, but prepare yourself for heavy melodrama in the third act.

• Jules Brenner, Cinema Signals

  Sweet to the point of getting a sugar rush. Underwritten and under-directed in style and realization, it has all the substance of a confection.

• Mike D'Angelo, AV Club

  A clunky hybrid-half feel-good weepie, half preposterous thriller-that functions primarily as an elaborate travel brochure ...

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  Touching story about how the spiritual practice of enthusiasm works wonders in the life of a man in prison.

• Mike McGranaghan, Aisle Seat

  33 Postcards is merely the latest in a long line of films to throw in needless crime subplots as a way of shortcutting things emotionally.

• Prairie Miller, WBAI Radio

  Orphan Mei Mei discovers dubious desired dad Guy Pearce is not exactly what he seems. Nor is this movie, taking a surprising turn away from the conventional, as it embraces collective values over the usual quest and flight into Western individualism.

• Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

  Pauline Chan's film is a jumbled mixture of redemptive uplift and genre hijinks.

Read all 14 critic reviews