Jayne Mansfield's Car 2013

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: Jayne Mansfield's Car isn't likely to set America's theaters on fire, but it's a powerful whisper of a film. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: In its best moments, you can see what the film might have been with half a dozen fewer characters. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Overall, the rambling "Jayne Mansfield's Car" is almost as big a wreck as its namesake. Read more

Nick Schager, AV Club: It just sits there, in the process dispensing with so much leaden dialogue and half-formed narrative threads that it manages only to bring together lots of fine actors in the beautiful rural southern sunshine. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Billy Bob Thornton's rough charms make him always a welcome screen presence, but his return to the writer-director chair doesn't stand a chance with this labored script. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: By a certain point the deliberate pokiness and lackadaisical attitude toward character development and resolution feels like spilled food that never gets completely wiped up. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: There's a terrific movie struggling to escape from this overplotted, overedited, overdetermined stew ... Read more

Linda Holmes, NPR: The whole is oddly unsatisfying and the film feels slow. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Thornton's forthright direction fits the subject matter. And the actors are skilled enough to find shadings within starkly sketched scenarios. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: It's one thing to explore the messiness of familial relationships and regret against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, and something else entirely to try and shove every jot and tiddle in place before the closing credits roll. Read more

Sam Adams, Time Out: Thornton never establishes a rhythm that would let him move between stories without it feeling like he's changing channels on a vintage TV, the dial clunking into place every time he moves on. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The scenes in which good ol' boy mentality clashes with stuffy British sensibility are a highlight. Still, both cultures are depicted through cliches. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A fine cast can only do so much with the script's pileup of generational conflict and long-winded introspection, resulting in a willfully out-of-step picture. Read more