62
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Original-CinLiam LaceyOriginal-CinLiam LaceyThe urge to find hope in tragedy is as inevitable as the one to recognize shapes in clouds. But Funny Boy leaves an unsettling chasm between this one slender story and the grim history it represents.
- 70Los Angeles TimesTracy BrownLos Angeles TimesTracy BrownDirector Deepa Mehta ambitiously juxtaposes a teenage love story with rising political tensions and ethnic violence in a film that is ultimately about thriving and sometimes just surviving as someone deemed “different.”
- 70Film ThreatAlex SavelievFilm ThreatAlex SavelievMehta skillfully navigates both the tender sequences and the more devastating ones. Aided by Howard Shore's rousing musical score, she portrays a beautiful country ripped apart by social violence. Her film serves as an ode to those who either died or were forced into exile for having the courage to express their true identities.
- 63The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Tina HassanniaThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Tina HassanniaThere is so much going on in this film, much of it so rich in detail, that you wonder how better the original material might work as a television series.
- 63Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreFunny Boy is valuable in letting us see this world and this history through different eyes.
- 60The GuardianCath ClarkeThe GuardianCath ClarkeIn the end the story is told rather blandly, the edges sentimentally smoothed down.
- 50The New York TimesBen KenigsbergThe New York TimesBen KenigsbergMehta’s elaborate long takes contribute to the general sense of tumult, but the film never fully shakes the sense of stating the obvious.
- 50RogerEbert.comRoxana HadadiRogerEbert.comRoxana HadadiFunny Boy falters when trying to link together the personal and political, making for a well-intentioned film that never delivers much depth.