42
Metascore
20 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNot perfect; a vice cop played by Pam Grier is oddly conceived and unlikely in action, and the movie doesn't seem to know how to end. But as character studies of Jack and Claire, it is daring and inventive, and worthy of comparison with the films of a French master of criminal psychology like Jean-Pierre Melville.
- 70Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesTheir relationship is so subtly inflected with fear, envy, and self-loathing on both sides of the class divide that I was drawn in nonetheless. Brody is a compelling presence throughout.
- 58Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumAdrien Brody completists will appreciate Love the Hard Way, if only as an example of the kind of self-conscious, brat-noir projects their man probably won't be doing anymore.
- 50New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickWildly uneven romantic drama.
- 50Boston GlobeTy BurrBoston GlobeTy BurrThe film's final scenes are among its silliest, unfortunately.
- 40Village VoiceLaura SinagraVillage VoiceLaura SinagraIf this adaptation of Chinese punk-lit writer Wang Shuo's fiction doesn't survive its Bronx trick-out, you can't really blame Brody, whose luminous autodidact seems caught between camp and coolsville.
- 40Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNone of it is enough, though, to save this glum drama from its schematic self.
- 40Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAlthough Love the Hard Way is saturated with a doomed romanticism that feels more fictitious than real, the actors lend the movie a potency that it would not have had otherwise.
- 40VarietyDerek ElleyVarietyDerek ElleyDoesn't ring true as a love story between a cocky scam artist and a clever biology student, despite a game effort by Charlotte Ayanna in an impossible role and Adrien Brody at his loosest.
- 25Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversTo shine in a turd like this shows Brody has the stuff that -- damn the Oscar jinx -- makes an actor last.