<P> A.O. Scott of The New York Times observed, "As a novelist Mr. Cunningham can carry elusive, complex emotions on the current of his lovely, intelligent prose . A screenwriter, though, is more tightly bound to conventions of chronology and perspective, and in parceling his story into discrete scenes, Mr. Cunningham has turned a delicate novel into a bland and clumsy film...so thoroughly decent in its intentions and so tactful in its methods that people are likely to persuade themselves that it's better than it is, which is not very good...The actors do what they can to import some of the texture of life into a project that is overly preoccupied with the idea of life, but the mannered self - consciousness of the script and the direction keeps flattening them into types ." </P> <P> Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun - Times said, "The movie exists outside our expectations for such stories . Nothing about it is conventional . The three - member household is puzzling not only to us, but to its members . We expect conflict, resolution, an ending happy or sad, but what we get is mostly life, muddling through...Colin Farrell is astonishing in the movie, not least because the character is such a departure from everything he has done before ." </P> <P> Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle stated, "What we have here...is a movie about a friendship and about the changing nature of families . We also have a movie about what it was like to be a child in the late 1960s, a teenager in the mid-1970s and a young adult in the early 1980s . In these aspects, the film is sensitive, sociologically accurate and emotionally true . But the picture is also the story of one character in particular, Bobby, and when it comes to Bobby, A Home at the End of the World is sappy and bogus ." He added, "Farrell is not the first actor anyone would cast as an innocent, and he seems to know that and is keen on making good . His speech is tentative but true . His eyes are darting but soulful . The effort is there, but it's a performance you end up rooting for rather than enjoying, because there's no way to just relax and watch ." </P> <P> Peter Travers of Rolling Stone awarded the film three out of four stars, calling it "funny and heartfelt" and "a small treasure ." He added, "Farrell's astutely judged portrayal...is a career highlight" and "Stage director Michael Mayer (Side Man) makes a striking debut in film ." </P>

Home at the end of the world movie