Critic Reviews

• Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

  A melancholy and overly familiar thing.

• Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee

  Occasionally charming, but it's as manipulative as it is heartfelt.

• Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  Sporting thick, black-rimmed glasses, a runaway imagination and enough nervous energy to light up Manhattan, Noya turns what could have been a pitiful character into a rambunctious imp.

• Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

  The winsome child/unappreciative adults memoir is almost a genre unto itself. But this version is particularly well-cast and well-told.

• Peter Howell, Toronto Star

  Agresti has a decent cast here, but his story is so thin, it threatens to float right off the screen, even when late plot developments add a twist or two.

• Jean Lowerison, San Diego Metropolitan

  Valentín joins an ever-lengthening list of films about children from broken families. No better or worse than most, it boasts Almodóvar favorite Maura, who is splendid, as always. Agresti also does a fine job as the father.

• Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle

  Whether you ease into the languid and semi-treacly flow of this big-hearted Argentinean import or instead scoff at the child's-eye platitudes contained within will have much to do with your tolerance of preposterously cute moppets in dire straits.

• James Plath, Reel.com

  Though the film covers familiar ground, this premature coming-of-age tale moves forward with grace and dignity

• Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

  I love the color blue on the DVD cover but were the haloes-not to mention the tagline "Cupid Just Turned Eight"-really necessary?

• Steve Schneider, Orlando Weekly

  Writer/director Alejandro Agresti proves adept at reminding us that everybody's heart is a nation-state unto itself.

Read all 10 critic reviews