Answers to Nothing (2011)

9% of critics liked it
(22 reviews)
38% of users liked it
(1,417 ratings)

Against the backdrop of a missing girl case, lost souls throughout Los Angeles search for meaning and redemption and affect each other in ways they don't always see. -- (C) Roadside Attractions

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Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr. 3 min.
Directed By: Matthew Leutwyler
Written By: Matthew Leutwyler, Gillian Vigman
Genres: Mystery & Suspense, Drama

In Theaters: Dec 2, 2011 Limited
On DVD: Feb 28, 2012
Studio: Roadside Attractions

Critic Reviews

Rafer Guzman, Newsday
Nearly a dozen random themes and characters have been Scotch-taped together into a single mess.
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
An apt title that sadly recalls lesser ensemble pieces like "Playing by Heart," while wanting to be "Grand Canyon."
Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle
Any movie that calls itself Answers to Nothing ought to be 100 percent sure it's about something.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
It begins with Dane Cook procuring sperm to impregnate his desperate wife with a little help from his mistress - and goes steadily downhill from there.
Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
There's a lack of real conclusiveness to many of the film's characters and situations.
Neil Genzlinger, New York Times
Some fine performances and an embrace of understatement make Matthew Leutwyler's oddly titled "Answers to Nothing" a respectable entry in the multiple-stories-that-interlock genre.
Brent Simon, Shockya.com
Reaches rather nakedly for early Paul Thomas Anderson territory, but the copped moves come off less as artful homage and more as the nervous half-formed duplications of a mentee who's left the nest too soon.
Dan Lybarger, KC Active
With his latest effort 'Answers to Nothing,' co-writer-director Matthew Leutwyler appears to have confused glum with profound.
Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com
Some impassioned performances ease the flow of gloom, but it's a long, steady walk to the noose for a picture in dire need of Prozac and some fresh air.
James Verniere, Boston Herald
In the inexplicably titled 'Answers to Nothing,' a film you might inadvertently wander into this weekend if you're unlucky
R. Kurt Osenlund, Slant Magazine
Tasteless and out of touch right down to its foundation, embarrassingly unaware that Crash-like, hyperlink narratives went out with bird-flu paranoia.
Alison Willmore, Movieline
A Short Cuts full of self-pitying sociopaths, Answers to Nothing follows its characters toward a succession of increasingly queasy conclusions it tries to pass off as heartfelt and human.
David Noh, Film Journal International
An overlong bunch of intertwining stories, none of which is worth the viewer's time.
Matt Pais, RedEye
Will make you hate words--and these idiots who refuse to stop saying them without actually saying anything at all.
Nathan Rabin, AV Club
Answers To Nothing's thinly drawn characters orbit one another like fading satellites until their stories intersect and overlap in arbitrary ways.
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix
The baleful influence of Paul Haggis's multi-narrative Oscar-winner Crash (2004) continues with Matthew Leutwyler's trite contraption.

Read all 16 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Christopher H

Attempting too much to be like the ensemble cast city dramas like Crash, Answers To Nothing tries to stitch a handful of people's lives together, intertwining them and giving them cultural and relevant issues that they can work through. Though there is little to work with and… More
Attempting too much to be like the ensemble cast city dramas like Crash, Answers To Nothing tries to stitch a handful of people's lives together, intertwining them and giving them cultural and relevant issues that they can work through. Though there is little to work with and even less to come out with, the film still succeeds in finding a good group of people to keep the events interesting and captivating, especially Dane Cook, you continues to grow as a dramatic actor and delivering a sentimental performance that overshadows the majority. Still, the statements fall a bit flat and predictable, leaving this ensemble film just another Crash wanna-be.