52
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrA genuine charmer by George Roy Hill, a director best known for such ersatz charmers as Butch Cassidy and The Sting. His crowd-pleasing instincts have been subsumed by a bracing technical assurance here; the contrivances are still there, but they're presented with a smooth and rare professionalism.
- 80TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThis sweet and innocent movie about teen romance won't fail to bring a tear and a smile in its heart-tugging finale.
- 70NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenIn its sweet, witty and modestly sentimental way, it delivers the romantic frissons that many star-studded, would-be blockbusters of the heart lumber in vain to achieve. [30 Apr 1979, p.81]
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertA Little Romance has been described as a movie about the way kids behave when adults aren't looking. I think it's quite the opposite: A movie about the way kids behave when adults are looking - and when adults are writing the dialog and directing the action, too. It gives us two movie kids in a story so unlikely I assume it was intended as a fantasy. And it gives us dialog and situations so relentlessly cute we want to squirm.
- 40The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyA Little Romance is a movie that seems to have melted the minds of everyone of any stature connected with it.
- 40Time OutTime OutHard to dismiss completely a film in which Broderick Crawford turns up as 'Brod', but with Olivier overdoing it dreadfully as the crinkly old ne'er-do-well who persuades misfit American teen Lane and French youth Bernard to run off to Venice and consolidate their love by the Bridge of Sighs, it's not one that'll win over hardened cynics either.
- 40Washington PostJudith MartinWashington PostJudith MartinThe intentional comedy in the film always seems on the verge of working, but then is quickly bludgeoned to death.
- 30Washington PostGary ArnoldWashington PostGary ArnoldThanks to the heavy synthetic hand of director George Roy Hill, the potentially charming aspects of the kids' infatuation curdle into syrupy gruel.