86
Metascore
28 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannSan Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannNobody's Fool functions mostly as a character study, but it's also Benton's elegy to America's endangered small towns. It's a gem.
- 100The Seattle TimesThe Seattle TimesIn Benton's able hands this authentic, engagingly humane movie evolves into a casual treasure of stolen moments, where nothing much happens and yet everything happens. Because Benton knows that life can best be found in a silent expression, a camouflaged turn of a phrase, and in the simple acts of compassion that make the next day worth waking up for.
- 91Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumNobody’s Fool shines with intelligence and grace and the natural light of fine moviemaking. Like a shot of superior whiskey, it’s a sharp comfort in the grayness of winter
- 90The New York TimesCaryn JamesThe New York TimesCaryn JamesIf Nobody's Fool is often heartbreaking in its sense of loss, it is also hopeful in the strength of its emotions and the sheer beauty of its performances.
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe story, written by Benton from the novel by Richard Russo, unfolds according to its own logic. It has the patience to listen to silences. Above all, it benefits from the confidence of Newman's performance. He is not hammering the points home, not marching from one big scene to another, but simply living on the screen.
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliNobody's Fool is about as sublime a motion picture as is likely to come out of Hollywood. With a structure that contravenes the norm, this film concentrates on character first, letting the plot fall naturally into place. Situations are forced on neither the film's inhabitants nor on those in the audience.
- 83Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittNobody's Fool centers on a hard-luck guy named Sullivan, played by Newman with a wisdom and panache that recall the best work of his career.
- 80VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyNobody's Fool is a gentle, flavorsome story of a loose-knit, dysfunctional family whose members essentially include every glimpsed citizen of a small New York town. Fronted by a splendid performance from Paul Newman as a spirited man who has made nothing of his life, Robert Benton's character-driven film is sprinkled with small pleasures; the dramatic developments here don't take place in the noisy, calamitous manner that is customary these days.
- 80EmpireCaroline WestbrookEmpireCaroline WestbrookMesmerising, magical portrait of smalltown America, dominated by a performance from Paul Newman so outstanding it must surely make him front-runner to hoist the Best Actor statuette come Oscar night.
- 70Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAs always with Newman, we never quite feel he could have been as bad a guy as the script insists he was, he remains the reason to see Nobody's Fool. The film's various difficulties inevitably fade from memory, but his performance lingers, as the great ones always do.