Leaves of Grass 2009

Michael Phillips, At the Movies: You could get whiplash from his movie's mood swings. Read more

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: Mr. Norton is a pleasure to watch, and so is everyone else. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: It would be overly polite to call this a pale shadow of the tone-shifting Coen brothers farces from which Nelson -- who costarred in O Brother, Where Art Thou? -- is taking his cues. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Leaves of Grass is part goofy drug comedy, part shocking bloodbath. It's a riot of tones and genres, but unlike that other recent hybrid, Pineapple Express, the parts add up to something larger. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The movie bubbles with intellectual curiosity and narrative ambition. And for that I dig it, even if Leaves of Grass has the habit of swerving and sometimes lurching from tone to tone. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: An offbeat thriller that is deepened -- rather than derailed -- by its tricky shift from darkly funny to just plain dark. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The movie is a showcase for digital technology and for Norton's virtuosity, but I wish it weren't such a weightless shambles. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: As a writer-director, Nelson keeps the laughs coming at a steady pace, and never condescends to his articulate redneck characters. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: It's just another oblique backfire from Tim Blake Nelson, whose work as a writer-director in general wallows in a bog of mediocrity. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves of Grass is some kind of sweet, wacky masterpiece. It takes all sorts of risks, including a dual role with Edward Norton playing twin brothers, and it pulls them off. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: One Edward Norton performance is often enough reason to see a movie, so it comes as no surprise that the prospect of two -- he plays twins -- is very much the main attraction, and reward, of Leaves of Grass. Read more