Critic Reviews

• John Hartl, Seattle Times

  In the end, only the veteran actors playing Elsa and Fred make the movie watchable.

• J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

  This starts to get interesting in the homestretch, as the woman's chronic deception begins to catch up with her, but for the most part it's an extended Geritol commercial.

• Dan Zak, Washington Post

  Elsa & Fred feels not substantial enough to bear the weight of its themes. It dissolves like cotton candy, making proper digestion impossible.

• Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic

  For some, the movie will be an emotional paean to love at the twilight of life; to others, though, it's a contrived, manipulative film calculatedly sentimental and -- except for poor Alfredo -- totally false to life.

• Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle

  Elsa & Fred is worth seeing just to admire how Argentine writer-director Marcos Carnevale avoids so much as a whiff of condescension.

• Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  A sweet but inconsequential romantic comedy.

• Sarah Boslaugh, Playback:stl

  Director Marcos Carnevale makes sure to get his ticket punched at every station in this journey through cinematic convention.

• Bill White, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

  Who would have guessed that, in this age of excess and one-upmanship, when bigger is always better, the year's most romantic screen kiss would last a mere two seconds.

• Steve Davis, Austin Chronicle

  The dream fulfillment seems more silly than romantic, and it brings the movie to an abrupt end that is wholly unsatisfying.

• Jeanne Kaplan, Kaplan vs. Kaplan

  When one thinks of on-screen chemistry, rarely, if ever, do you think of characters in their seventies.

• David Kaplan, Kaplan vs. Kaplan

  This little gem will have the mature moviegoer completely under its spell.

• Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

  Elsa is obsessed with the "Fontana di Trevi" sequence from La Dolce Vita, but that's only a reminder that the aging Fellini once accomplished far more effective films about old age and second chances.

• Harvey S. Karten, Compuserve

  Convincingly proves even to teens (not likely to be in the audience, unfortunately), that you're never too old for romance.

• John P. McCarthy, Boxoffice Magazine

  Marcos Carnevale's patronizing take on the relationship between an elderly widow and widower in Madrid unspools like the vision of a middle-aged person intent on propagating stereotypes about youthfulness and the golden years.

• Noel Murray, AV Club

  The absence of bite prevents the movie from leaving any kind of impression.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  The transformation of a fear-based man by a Zorba-the-Greek-like woman with a zest for life, enthusiasm, and creative daring.

Read all 16 critic reviews