73
Metascore
30 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottArt is a fairy tale we choose to believe in, and this movie, a fiction confected about real people, is too good not to be true.
- 80The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyThis is a movie of great spirit and considerable charm. It’s about the giddiness of promise--the awakening of young talent, after years of the Depression, to a moment when anything seems possible.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliDesigned primarily for those who are intrigued by theater, curious about Welles, or some combination of both.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttChristian McKay's impersonation of young Orson Welles is sensational in this enjoyable, though slight, historical fiction about a teen who spends a memorable week with the legendary wonder.
- 70VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyThere are moments, especially when Welles is alternating between acting as Brutus and directing everyone else, that it’s possible to forget you’re watching an actor and really believe you’re beholding Orson Welles at work.
- 70Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanDeft, affectionate, and unexpectedly enjoyable.
- 70Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyLos Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMcKay, a British stage actor who was doing an off-Broadway production about the movie legend when casting started, and Danes, whose acting always seems so effortlessly good, are the best things about the film.
- 70SalonStephanie ZacharekSalonStephanie ZacharekA sweet, modest snapshot of a long-lost time when a bold kid with a showbiz dream and a little luck could actually get somewhere, and if he could sing and dance to boot, his chances of success would be even greater. Zac Efron fits right into 1937; in 2009, he's a lost boy.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanHas so little fire that Welles himself would have wondered out loud what he was doing stuck in the middle of it.
- 50The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinEfron has yet to learn that smiling pretty is merely a component of acting, not its entirety. He makes for a supremely passive lead whose chemistry with Danes is nonexistent.