Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 73
Fresh: 47 | Rotten: 26
Though Broken English eventually settles into basic rom-com territory, it's pleasant and good-natured, and Parker Posey is spellbinding throughout the movie.
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 9
Though Broken English eventually settles into basic rom-com territory, it's pleasant and good-natured, and Parker Posey is spellbinding throughout the movie.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 22,948
A single thirtysomething whose friends all seem to be romantically involved, happily married, or with child meets an eccentric Frenchman who shows her just what an amazing place the world can truly be in director Zoe Cassavetes' entry into the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. As if it wasn't depressing enough to be 35 and still single, Nora (Parker Posey) is constantly reminded by her loving but tactless mother (Gena Rowlands) just how unlucky she has been in love. Though Nora longs to enter into a
Jun 22, 2007 Wide
Aug 21, 2007
$0.8M
Magnolia Pictures
All Critics (77) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (26) | DVD (5)
How Posey's neurotic, self-destructive heroine finds her way to healing is the core of this generous film, whose moral is that happiness can't begin unless you're open to its possibility.
A likable but wan romance.
Cassavetes supplies no easy answers or easy laughs, forgoing romantic-comedy beats in respect for Nora's desperation. Call this confection a romantic-dramedy with humor on wry.
Broken English establishes a sympathetic character, gets Parker Posey to make her real, and then grinds her in the gears of a plot we cannot believe.
A promising first film with moments exceeding that promise.
A welcome chance to see Posey at her flighty, edgy best. Is there an actress alive better able to convey the neuroses and self-doubts of the typical over-educated, under-challenged American woman?
Broken English surprised me all around: I didn't expect to be particularly impressed with it, and instead it turns out to be not only one of my favorite films I've see this year, but it will probably earn a spot in the all-time annals for me.
Posey's admirers will experience a sensual intoxication that fans always experience when their film goddesses are at their very best.
This isn't the best independent film we've seen starring Miss Posey, but she is the reason this one works.
a tired retread of Sex and the City, with all the same preoccupations and issues but with none of the fun
Edgy girl-meets-boy indie for older teens and up.
When Nora decides to take yet another risk against her better judgment, the film leaves to you to judge it as quixotic, vexing, or fitting.
You might be a little surprised or at least amused when the caustic, tired, joyous, frantic roller coaster stops.
Ultimately, the only wisdom you leave with is the implausibly wise pocket philosophy gleaned from romantic strangers on the streets of an idealized France.
...neither the story nor the well-acted characters quite engage our interest or sympathy.
...eventually jumps the shark by failing to consider a major character's professional competence
Parker Posey is game in 'Broken English,' although the limited conception of her giggly insecure Nora Wilder is too thin for ninety-six minutes.
Posey gives a committed performance, and Justin Theroux is good as an overindulged movie star. But almost nothing that's said or done here is convincing. And the energy is set at near-coma level.
Filmmaking is a family affair for the Cassavetes, and Zoe inherits the unpretentious, performance-driven style from her father, John, while delivering a love story that's accessible enough for mainstream audiences, a trick learned from her brother Nick.
A desperately lonely (not my words; hers: "I'm embarrassed at my own desperation") woman fails to find love in NYC so she follows a man to Paris.This is a spoiler review because the biggest problems with this film are in the third act.Parker Posey plays Nora Wilder, who is much like the lead in most romantic
May 29, 2011
Super Reviewer
I hesitate to call this a "romantic comedy" as the acting is far too solid to justify the stigma that (in my mind) comes with that moniker, even though the story line itself is predictable enough to warrant that categorization. It is in fact very romantic, in a pretty realistic way. And it is also fairly ammusing in
May 7, 2008Super Reviewer
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