It's Complicated Really a Simple Rom-Com

Jason Segel, Emily Blunt star in truthful romantic comedy

(NEWSER) - The Five-Year Engagement clocks in at over two hours, which is a bit too long for many critics. But its honesty about relationships makes the Jason Segel-Emily Blunt rom-com stand out from the pack.

• "Because it's so willing to drill down into Tom and Violet's misery, The Five-Year Engagement involves a higher grim-to-grin ratio than its fluffier brethren," writes Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post . "But there's an unmistakable ring of truth to the couple's conflicts and mixed feelings."

Helps redeem otherwise mediocre film

(NEWSER) - As a biopic, The Iron Lady is nothing to write home about—but critics are blown away by Meryl Streep's typically excellent performance as Margaret Thatcher:

• The film contains "little sense of the outside world, the human cost, or the ripple effect of divisive government policies. It is a movie that gives us Thatcher without Thatcherism," writes Xan Brooks in the Guardian . But Streep "is the one great weapon of this often silly and suspect picture." She offers "a masterpiece of mimicry."

Sappy, predictable rom-com a guilty-pleasure only

(NEWSER) - Critics aren't exactly head-over-heels for Letters to Juliet, a predictable romantic comedy about a young woman helping an older one reconnect with a lost love, but it has its charms. Here's what they're saying:

• “Letters will hardly go down as the funniest or sharpest caper of the year,” writes Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon , but it's a “breathtakingly refreshing change” from the “flinty females and douche-bag dudes” that populate most recent rom-coms.

Jeff Bridges, Mo'Nique, 'Mad Men,' 'Glee' also among winners

(NEWSER) - Avatar and The Hangover captured the top film awards, Meryl Streep and Drew Barrymore charmed with stream-of-consciousness acceptance speeches, and host Ricky Gervais generally behaved at tonight's Golden Globes ceremony. Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock established themselves as Academy Award favorites with victories in the leading dramatic role categories, as did Mo'Nique and Christoph Waltz of Inglourious Basterds in the supporting categories. More»

Is it a film for kids? Who cares! gush critics

(NEWSER) - Wes Anderson is winning raves for his stop-motion take on Roald Dahl's classic Fantastic Mr. Fox, with voices by a raft of stars including Meryl Streep and George Clooney:

• It's so good, David Edelstein forgot himself. When the flick ended, he writes in New York , he wished "the whole battery of gifted artists could come out and take a bow." The film "feels handmade, present, as if they’re all backstage and the curtain is going up before your eyes."