The Baxter Reviews
July 19, 2007
A droll romantic comedy that relies on a self-deprecating brand of humor which must be a bit of an acquired taste. The film's utter predictably sinks this exercise in obviousms, making its few funny moments not worth waiting for.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
October 21, 2005
What comes to mind are TV sitcom pilots full of strain, and the forlornly perky mechanisms of old Day & Hudson comedies.
Original Score: 2/4
September 30, 2005
Clearly the filmmakers are trying to make The Baxter look old-fashioned. But there's a modern smugness and superiority that undermines that attempt.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
September 30, 2005
Every romantic-comedy clich gets played out, but merely re-enacting those clichs in an arch tone isn't funny enough.
Original Score: 1.5/4
September 29, 2005
The structure is a miscalculation by Showalter, who inexplicably drives his audience through the exact type of sappy material he had started off satirizing.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
September 25, 2005
Perhaps it's only just that a movie about a loser should be a loser itself.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
September 24, 2005
Only when Williams is around does the movie seem human, true, and funny: Even in her slapstick there's pain. She's almost too good: It's not until she's left a scene that you realize the movie isn't working.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
September 24, 2005
Unlike Woody Allen's nebbishes, who are always the smartest and funniest people on the screen, Elliot is a bore.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
September 23, 2005
The biggest failing of The Baxter is that the humor is often just too obscure.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
September 22, 2005
The movie is like an extremely faithful cover version of a song you like -- it adds nothing new, so what's the point?
Original Score: 2/4
September 20, 2005
With seemingly thousands of romantic comedies to slay, Showalter wound up joining the party instead of peeing in the punch.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
September 18, 2005
Conceptually...The Baxter is hobbled, and all Showalter has is his concept.
Original Score: 1/4
September 18, 2005
Showalter's Elliot, self-described as the kind of guy who gets hay fever just raking the leaves, never breaks out of the Baxter clich. Frankly, he makes a pretty good case for why the sad sack never gets the girl.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
September 16, 2005
Showalter all-too-slavishly follows the lock-step school of formula romance.
September 16, 2005
The Baxter is so ineptly conceived, staged, written and played that you suspect it's part of a psychology experiment to see if people will laugh at anything.
September 16, 2005
Mildly cute while thoroughly forgettable, the chief achievement of The Baxter is it serves to remind viewers how thoroughly adorable Michelle Williams can be, even in something this inconsequential.
Original Score: C
September 16, 2005
The Baxter has many of the ingredients of a good-natured indie date movie. But when the lead performance isn't one of them, it gets difficult to recommend.
Original Score: 2/4
September 16, 2005
The Baxter is a self-conscious one-man show that obliterates the fine line between 'quirky' and 'annoying.'
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
September 15, 2005
He's a sweet guy, sure, but he has all the romance and personality of a hot-water bottle, and so does the film...
Full Review
| Original Score: C
September 15, 2005
While trying really hard to make Elliot a lovable loser, Showalter too often just renders him shrill and annoying.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+