Alex & Emma (2011)

Critic Reviews

• Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

  The actors make this fun if you can overlook the ludicrous view of Jeremy Leven's screenplay concerning how novels are written and what publishers generally pay for them.

• Rex Reed, New York Observer

  It has no tempo, energy or pulse.

• Laura Sinagra, Village Voice

  This isn't one for the time capsule -- just bury it.

• Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

  It's paint by numbers.

• Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

  Dull and listless from the start, partly because the leads fail to connect and partly because both the script and the direction let them down.

• Todd McCarthy, Variety

  A desperately slight romantic comedy marked by contrived romance and little comedy.

• , Film4

  About as funny as root canal work and as romantic as a rainy fortnight in Wrexham. Rob Reiner should make a phone call to Christopher Guest a priority.

• Nell Minow, Common Sense Media

  Uninspired -- neither romantic nor comic.

• Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

  "Alex & Emma" has a light tone of modernized '20s inflected comedy that Woody Allen would love to still be able to capture in his movies.

• Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed

  No matter how hard Alex and Emma tries, it's still the same package but with new wrapping.

• Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile

  What might have looked like a good idea on paper goes seriously awry in the screen treatment of this clunker from writer Jeremy Leven and director Rob Reiner.

• , Empire Magazine

  A miserable failure on every count.

• Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television

  What is unusual about the film is that we see both the real life of the characters, and scenes from the hero's novel.

• Mark Collette, Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)

  Delves into ... all the odious cliches of the romantic comedy genre, but Reiner justifies it by laughing at the ridiculousness of his own story.

• Brian Webster, Apollo Guide

  Extras include a fairly diverting full-length audio commentary by director Rob Reiner and actor Luke Wilson. It's more entertaining than the movie they're talking about.

• Daniel M. Kimmel, Worcester Telegram & Gazette

  Wilson is inert and lethargic... Instead of adding some comic energy and vitality to the proceedings, he seems to be sleepwalking through them.

• Sarah Chauncey, Reel.com

  There's a reason there aren't more movies about the writing process. To anyone other than the person writing, the process is incredibly boring.

• John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

  ...the movie's plot goes nowhere. It wanders hither and yon trying desperately to fill up the film's ninety-odd minutes of screen time.

• John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

  ...sweet without being romantic, cute without being funny.

• Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

  Director Rob Reiner describes the film's past as a "rich kind of Gatsby world." Yeah, riiiiiiiiight.

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