The Sapphires Reviews
Film Threat
By-the-numbers in every sense of the word, the film tracks a tried-and-true sort of triumph while featuring renditions of soul classics so bursting with energy and joy you won't care that the originality meter is leaning on empty.
Tampa Bay Times
Even when it seems contrived The Sapphires is a feel-good movie in the most positive meaning of that term, thanks to the Motown music and O'Dowd's cheeky charm. Like the Temptations, I loved every sugar pie, honey bunch moment. I can't help myself.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
Combustible Celluloid
Unfortunately, it has been turned into a routine and uninspiring movie, following a tired, old formula the entire way.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
TheMovieReport.com
A surefire crowdpleaser with all the ingredients for the type of little-movie-that-could sleeper success that Harvey Weinstein has nurtured in years and award seasons past.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Flick Filosopher
You've seen this story before, but never pulled off with so much joie de vivre.
East Bay Express
They can put a song across just like the Dreamgirls. What's not to like?
Austin Chronicle
Exuberant but fairly formulaic.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
One Guy's Opinion
Doesn't always mix its anti-prejudice message and its feel-good nostalgia with complete smoothness. But despite some ragged edges it provides a reasonably good time.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
Canada.com
Director Wayne Blair -- another veteran of the stage show -- finds his footing during the film's many musical numbers.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Despite the prosaic plot and reserved approach taken by Blair, Briggs, and Thompson, it's tough to get cynical about such a warmhearted picture that strives to tell so uplifting a story.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Top CriticThe harmonies they strike in this reality-inspired charmer are sweetly sublime.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
You could drive an Abrams tank through the film's plot holes, but you'll likely be too busy enjoying yourself to bother.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
"The Sapphires" feels like a movie you've already seen, but it's nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable, like a pop song that's no less infectious when you know every word.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Sapphires is hardly a cinematic diamond mine. But this Commitments-style mashup of music and melodrama manages to entertain without demanding too much of its audience.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
It's a sweet little tale, and that co-writer Tony Briggs is the son of one of the real-life singers adds to the heart-tugging. In the end, though, it's not quite enough to sustain a feature-length film.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Kansas City Star
A movie with enough melody and camaraderie to cover up its lack of originality.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
The Sapphiresshouldn't gleam as brightly as it does. The up-from-struggle story follows the predictable form of movies like these, from Dreamgirls to The Commitments. But there's such a sense of joy ... that it's hard not to be won over.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Draining most of the blood, sweat and tears from a true story, this music-minded movie capably covers a song we've heard a hundred times before.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
