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Inventing the Abbotts (1997)

tomatometer

31

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 26
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 18

No consensus yet.

25

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 6

No consensus yet.

audience

54

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 9,368

My Rating

Movie Info

The lives of two closely linked, small town Illinois families dangerously intersect in this domestic drama set in the 1950s, based on a short story by Sue Miller and directed by Pat O'Connor. Though they are from the wrong side of the tracks, the working class brothers Jacey (Billy Crudup) and Doug Holt (Joaquin Phoenix) are in love with the wealthy and beautiful Abbott sisters. Shy and quiet Doug, who worships his womanizing brother, has eyes for the iconoclastic Pam (Liv Tyler), but Jacey's

R, 1 hr. 50 min.

Drama, Romance

Ken Hixon

Mar 13, 2001

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (47) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (18) | DVD (4)

Cast of newcomers is appealing, but this small-town melodrama is so old-fashioned and out-of-touch with contemporary youth that it feels as if it were made the same time that its story is set, in 1957.

August 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In the end, it adds up to nothing more than a humorless, forgettable nostalgia piece with carefully re-created costumes and settings from the Eisenhower years.

July 1, 2004 Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) | Comment

If looked at in the right perspective, as a soap and not as the serious drama it pretends to be, this is quite diverting, if emotionally hollow, melodrama.

January 18, 2004 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

Offers an inventive and engaging exploration of emotional intelligence.

August 26, 2002 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | Comment
Spirituality and Practice

It is rare to find a film that treats teenagers and young adults as real people who think for themselves, and own up to their mistakes

February 27, 2001 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | Comment
Q Network Film Desk
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Inventing the Abbotts

I can remember watching this one a few years back and really being not impressed. However, I really couldn't remember a lot about it, so when I saw this as a free rental, decided I wound give it another go. I have to say it was nowhere near as bad as I remembered. It is a fairly subdued film, no one in it is terribly

October 26, 2008
romy861

Super Reviewer

Not a bad film, not really my cuppa tea but I kept watching so it can?t be that bad I guess!

September 29, 2009
SirPant

Super Reviewer

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