65
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 83The Film StageMitchell BeaupreThe Film StageMitchell BeaupreKore-eda’s preoccupations with death are on firm display here yet again, and over time Nozomi sees that even if there is a painful impermanence when it comes to living, we all leave something of us behind after we go.
- 80Film ThreatFilm ThreatAir Doll is beautifully shot and performed.
- 75Boston GlobeWesley MorrisBoston GlobeWesley MorrisFor 75 minutes or so, Air Doll is the lightest of Kore-eda’s movies, which include the superb “Nobody Knows’’ (2004) and “Still Life’’ (2008). Gradually, though, the tender music-box score — by one-man Japanese band world’s end girlfriend — is tinged with foreboding.
- 75Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniPhiladelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniAir Doll covers some of the same ground as that other postmodern Pinocchio story, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, while avoiding its facile sentimentality.
- 70Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallChicago ReaderAndrea GronvallThe incandescent Doona Bae (The Host, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) gives a daring performance as the toy-turned-woman,
- 70NPRMark JenkinsNPRMark JenkinsOverly long and occasionally clumsy, Air Doll can't be counted among Kore-eda's best. But much of it is lovely and expressive, and it's one of those films that can haunt viewers long after they've left the theater.
- 67The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe film is a little too cute and scattershot to achieve real profundity, with the doll-woman too often coming across like a playfully erotic version of Being There’s Chance the Gardener, defined entirely by her absence of guile.
- 60Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleIt’s remarkable how Bae’s commitment to the physical mechanics of a trickily metaphoric role in no way interferes with the heart she needs to show, and vice versa.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoSan Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoThe idea is intriguing - an inflatable sex doll comes alive and experiences the world with wide-eyed innocence - but Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Air Doll" is only partly successful. The film's poignant depiction of human loneliness is undercut by saccharine notes and a drifting tone.
- 40VarietyDerek ElleyVarietyDerek ElleyJapanese helmer Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ongoing interest in love, loss and souls in limbo is stretched way too thin in Air Doll, a beautifully lensed (by Taiwanese ace Mark Lee) and charmingly played (by South Korean icon Bae Du-na) modern fairy tale about an inflatable doll who takes on a life of her own. Recut to a trim 90 minutes, this fragile yarn would work perfectly and have a chance of an afterlife as a specialty item. In its present form, pic may not get much farther than the fest netherworld.