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Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Feather-light, Avenue Montaigne is lifted from mere pleasantness by its quirky character details. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: How much you respond to its calculated charms depends largely on your response to the waif-in-the-big-city appeal of de France. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Avenue Montaigne would be difficult to stomach if it weren't so light and uninsistent, and if its actors weren't so charming. I still rolled my eyes -- but sometimes I do that when I get a really good croissant. Read more
Ronnie Scheib, Chicago Reader: Thompson's crowd-pleaser makes up in refined schmaltz what it lacks in innovation or profundity. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It's formula stuff, to be sure, but full of feeling for the sweep of the past as well as for the unsettled, yearning present. Echoes of Juliette Greco, Gilbert Becaud and Charles Aznavour haunt the soundtrack. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The picture is very obviously crafted as a fable. Its characters are stereotypes at the beginning, but our focus sharpens as we watch them: They sneak out of the roles we've assigned to them and become people instead. Read more
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: That the film succeeds as well as it does despite a series of coincidences that strain credibility is a credit to a fine cast and a joie de vivre that pervades even the most implausible moments. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: If you're not going to Paris this spring -- and let's face it, so few of us are -- the next best thing might be Avenue Montaigne. Read more
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: When it all wraps up as neatly as the treacliest Hollywood film, we don't feel cheated, but rather enjoy the satisfaction of a story resolved, and we're happy for each of the people we have spent our hour with. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Aside from pretty people behaving cutely, though, there's just not much here, and even devoted Francophiles may nod into their cafe cremes. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A fine cast and a realistic touch give the charming farce a sweetness and emotional intimacy. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Who can turn le monde on with her smile? Why, it's Jessica (Cecile De France), a small-town gamine with spunk to spare in Avenue Montaigne. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Watching the charming Avenue Montaigne makes you realize not only how much we miss when mainstream French films are not on the movie menu, but how much we miss when American studios define 'romantic comedy' so strictly. Read more
John Anderson, Newsday: [Actress Cecile] De France is irresistible, and the whole film is like a big cookie. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Its cozy pleasures will do just fine. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Rarely has Paris seemed more enchanting than in Daniele Thompson's optimistic ode to Gallic romance. Read more
V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The characters are generic in a tres French way, and the predestined happy ending reeks of Hollywood sentimentality. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: The film serves as a timely reminder of the tastefully sybaritic terrain that our own mainstream moviemakers have largely ignored in the commercially driven thirst for blood and gore. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Even if this fine French meal isn't as rich or feels a little less than it might have been, it's still delightful to sit through, course after winning course. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Pleasant is perhaps the best word to describe the film. It entertains while it lasts, does not overstay its welcome (1:45 feels just about right), and provides reasonable closure to all the storylines. Read more
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A delicious French pastry, tart and sweet, steeped in Parisian glamour. Read more
Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: Avenue Montaigne is a bon-bon for culture tourists. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The movie is as airy as a spun-sugar dessert, but Thompson's observations on the artistic life are both affectionate and knowing: Beauty and wealth, though inevitably compelling, are appreciated as means to humane ends, not goals in themselves. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A film that seeks to amble it way towards resolution and which offers a few insights and smiles along the way. Read more
Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Brasseur's still got his scuffed charisma, and even Dupontel gets away with his hoary art-for-the-proles act. Et voila! Charming if you're in the mood. Read more
Elisabeth Vincentelli, Time Out: Love is in the air, obviously, and so is the smell of mothballs. Fans of Diane Johnson's books (Le Divorce) may fetishize the Paris depicted in Avenue Montaigne, but at times it feels like a diorama of bourgeois natives. Read more
Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Avenue Montaigne, a delicately charming fable set in Paris, offers the kind of experience we secretly crave when we visit any great city: meaningful encounters with its people. Read more