Dream House 2011

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: This crackpot thriller from the usually competent Jim Sheridan leaves only one mystery unsolved: what on earth was he thinking? Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: The film's ambitions are woefully small and familiar. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: This suburban gothic is a logy, convoluted mess. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: There are probably some fascinating behind-the-scenes stories that would explain why Dream House is such a ruined pile of nonsense. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Despite the talent involved, this is more a snooze than a dream. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Sheridan can't ever quite get hold of the tone and falls back on a default dreaminess (the little girls play a shaky rendition of Beethoven's "Fur Elise" more than once) that never quite convinces. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The only thing it haunts you with is: What the heck happened to Jim Sheridan? Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Sheridan's pacing is turgid and mournful, which lends the story -- sort of like The Shining crossed with Gothika during a sleepover stop at The Amityville Horror -- an air of ponderousness. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Was the screenplay, credited to David Loucka, this schizophrenic from the beginning? Or was some major tampering/reworking done at some point? Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: The premise and the execution hold a lot of promise, but the film's climactic reveal will be incredibly obvious to anyone paying even the slightest amount of attention. Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: A well-acted but ramshackle mess. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: While Will and Libby struggle to adjust their thinking caps, the viewer already knows, thanks to the tell-all trailer, the reason for much of the confusion. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Daniel Craig does everything to dispel comparisons to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining with a finely tuned performance, but the film flattens as it tries to explain his character's psychological state. Read more

Nick Schager, Village Voice: Sheridan's tale soon segues into an unevenly paced whodunit pockmarked with lame CG nightmare sequences and populated by hollow ciphers whose every word and action is less believable than the last. Read more