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Created Sep 15, 2018 01:40PM PST • Edited Sep 15, 2018 01:40PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Charming romcoms that are more intelligent than LOL funny are worth their weight in popcorn. Juliet, Naked is lightly buttered, a fine time at the movies for smart comedy fans as much as for lonely hearts.

   An exceptionally strong cast centers on the serene beauty of brainy Rose Byrne, who is sandwiched by Ethan Hawke’s aging stud and Chris O’Dowd’s ageless adolescent. They’re placed in a clever soap opera that is at once relatable and ridiculous, no surprise since it’s taken from a novel by the estimable Nick Hornby, the writer of An Education, not to mention of the beloved About a Boy and High Fidelity.

   Not their best work, it is however more than passable, a romcom for the rest of us. Like real life, it’s often rough around the edges, and yet is an entertaining lark at the same time. It ain’t great, but is damn good.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Rose Byrne lights up the movie as the most beautiful spinster in all of England. One suspects that Nick Hornby wrote the character as a plain woman, which is to say not a luminous beauty like Byrne. Fortunately, Lady Rose is also an exquisite actor, deft of craft and pure of expression. More, please.

   Chris O’Dowd plays just this side of annoying, well maybe that side of annoying as a man-child obsessed with a minor rockstar. Ethan Hawke easily essays the rockstar gone to seed, now trying to save his soul.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    The Peretz siblings infuse their post-modern comedic sensibilities into Juliet, Naked. It’s a tick behind Our Idiot Brother from 2011, a film they originated. Working here from a Nick Hornby novel, they don’t miss a beat, but don’t strike gold either.

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Very Good 3.5

    An Education

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals OK 2.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Titillating 1.9

18. Violence Gentle 1.4

19. Rudeness Salty 2.1

21. Reality

    Glib 1.4

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.1

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0