It's amiable enough but there's nothing on show to make it stand out from the average rom-com.
Comment
10/26/07
Puccini for Beginners (2007)
50
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:60
Fresh:30
Rotten:30
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: A Woody Allen-ish film that needs more of the caustic wit expected from the best New York rom coms.
Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Everyone is love-crazed in Maria Maggenti's delightfully quick-witted screwball comedy, Puccini for Beginners; but Allegra Castiglione–our dashing, adorable heroine–is by far the most commitment... [More]
Starring: Elizabeth Reaser, Gretchen Mol, Justin Kirk, Jennifer Dundas
Director: Maria Maggenti
Reviews for Puccini for Beginners
Top CriticClick to read the article
04/06/07
Click to read the article
04/23/09
Rarely have I seen a film simultaneously so good and so bad.
02/01/07
Proving that a movie called Puccini For Beginners actually can be as deeply pretentious as its title implies, Puccini For Beginners attempts to pick up the torch once carried by Woody Allen for the romantic comedy of ideas.
03/01/07
Writer-director Maggenti knows her way around snappy, sophisticated dialogue.
01/23/06
Top CriticIt's no fun to sit through the movie's retread Woody Allenisms, including postmodern repartee among the self-absorbed or giddily neurotic and passing strangers suddenly given to ironic Greek chorus-like commentary.
03/15/07
A Woody Allen devotee, writer-director Maria Maggenti hawks an insular view of New York City where poverty doesn't exist to illuminate the grotesque solipsism of her characters.
01/30/07
As offensive to New Yorkers as it is to men and lesbians
01/31/07
Light and fluffy but inconsequential, Maggenti's second feature in a decade is a pale imitation of Woody Allen's romantic comedies, except that the lead is a lesbian, no bi-sexual, no just confused (whatever, choose one).
06/26/06
Perhaps more problematic than the film's derivative nature -- with plot points and dialogue borrowing somewhat from Sex and the City and rather heavily from Woody Allen -- is the fact that the film is just not funny.
02/02/07
Reflectively transparent, inconsequential and slightly contrived in the same-sex love entanglement sweepstakes. Sadly, Maggenti's tepid romantic comedy gets lost in the perfunctory shuffle.
02/02/07
Puccini for Beginners is littered with witty dialogue, although some of it is so obviously scripted that it can become off-putting.
03/03/07
A hardworking screwball comedy that plays like a warmed-over Woody Allen fluffernutter.
02/01/07
When a script that considers itself smart, sassy and even intellectual comes across as juvenile and dopey, what went wrong?
03/31/07
Thankfully, Puccini for Beginners isn't quite as exploitative as you might expect for a movie about a bisexual love triangle. But that's about all the credit this flat-footed, would-be screwball comedy gets.
05/18/07
More of an extended sitcom than a film, featuring character actors who know the best way to milk a laugh from a line of dialogue or a facial expression.
01/24/07
...flickers with good intentions, but the final result is flat and featureless...
04/06/07
Painfully pleased with its own cleverness, of which there isn't much...
02/09/07
[Director] Maggenti uses too many devices borrowed from movies like Annie Hall and Manhattan to feel remotely fresh.
02/02/07
Latest News for Puccini for Beginners
February 01, 2007:
Critical Consensus: "Because" Is Less Than So-So; "Messengers" Not Screened -- Guess The Tomatometer!
This week at the movies, we've got mother/daughter conflict ("Because I Said So," starring Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore) and dark proceedings on a North Dakota... More...
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