A Private War
The Favourite
Crazy Rich Asians
Homecoming
Log in with Facebook
OR
By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango.
Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password.
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.
All Critics (12) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (2) | Rotten (10) | DVD (1)
A Hole in One aspires to the Sirkian social satire of Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, but the result is closer to a Coen brothers film with all the funny parts removed.
Its overindulgence in pseudo-David Lynch stylistics provides yet another distraction from a potentially intriguing story.
Things play out differently than expected, though not in any particularly interesting or entertaining way.
With its heavy symbolism and awkward, lurching pace, A Hole in One leaves viewers with little more than the vague conviction that falling in love is better than an ice pick to the brain.
Director-writer Richard Ledes shows better command of 1950s period atmosphere than he does of either his subject or his cast.
In writer-director Richard Ledes dreamy, '50s-era film, the lobotomy is touted as a way of controlling the uncontrollable and pacifying the anxious.
Interesting but, in the long run, aimless.
Dreadfully misconceived.
Quirky to the point of irritation.
The film's tapestry of snarky sights and sounds doesn't exactly shed a complex light on the social and emotional problems and behaviors of people who lived in '50s.
...from the opening titles, with their jangling ice-pick imagery, the film builds an appropriate sense of needling uneasiness...
First-time writer-director Richard Ledes's mystical tone and pervasive swipes from David Lynch tend to suffocate his satire, and stunt casting doesn't help.
[font=Century Gothic]"A Hole in One" takes place in 1953 in the small hamlet of Ice Town where Anna(Michelle Williams) fears she is losing her mind after witnessing the murder of a friend by her mobster boyfriend(Meat Loaf Aday). She feels that a lobotomy will solve her problems, as demonstrated by Dr. Ashton(Bill Raymond) as part of the local Mental Health Week. As shown, the Trans-Orbital Lobotomy is a simple procedure performed with an ice pick...[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"A Hole in One" is a victory of design over any kind of coherence. There are at least three or four separate elements to this movie that never come together. The most interesting of which are the mental health issues and lobotomy but that is definitely from a historical perspective. And the movie misses a valuable opportunity to link the infamous procedure to the conformity of the 1950's.[/font]
Super Reviewer
There are no approved quotes yet for this movie.
200 Essential Movies
Chosen by RT staff!
200 Freshest Movies
The best-reviewed since 1998
30 Great Scenes
30 great scenes in Rotten movies
Best of Netflix
Movies and shows to binge now
More News & Features
View All