42
Metascore
4 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Washington PostMichael O'SullivanWashington PostMichael O'SullivanAs Eleanor, Bonham Carter delivers a sweetly oddball performance playing a high-maintenance but fiercely determined grouch who is mostly impossible to like. Swank, for her part, is no picnic either: A former psychiatric nurse who discovered law later in life, her Colette is a largely charmless workaholic.
- 40Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinLos Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinThe filmmakers’ choice to focus so heavily — and, unfortunately, dully — on the odd-couple friendship between the tightly-wound, workaholic Hughes (Hilary Swank) and the brashly spirited Riese (Helena Bonham Carter) instead of on the bigger-picture legal wranglings and wider effects of the landmark lawsuit against a San Francisco hospital may point to the chapter’s cinematic limitations.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterKeith UhlichThe Hollywood ReporterKeith UhlichScene by scene you wish 55 Steps made you angrier than it does. Yet August's docile filmmaking acts as an emotional soporific, removing even the potential camp pleasures of Bonham Carter's histrionics.
- 40VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyAugust, whose English-language films have seldom compared well to his distinguished Scandinavian ones, can’t elevate this material much above the flat, pat TV-movie earnestness it seems content to aim for.