Those who are not fans of melodrama may not enjoy the film’s various tugs at the heartstrings, but the cast really sold it to me.

| Feb 13, 2024

[A] paint-by-numbers first feature.

| Jul 18, 2017

The real surprise is Brosnan's silent, agonized performance; his post-007 career has been one long campaign to prove he's got the goods.

| Jan 3, 2011

Although Feste delivers a well-acted, competently directed film with The Greatest, it ultimately lacks the originality that could lift it out of the fog.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 11, 2010

...a passable debut from a relatively promising director...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 24, 2010

Even if you want more from a film than a depiction of reality, you'll still appreciate the stars' performances. But you'll find yourself thinking it could have been so much better if rendering grief effectively didn't seem like the only goal.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 14, 2010

First-time writer-director Shana Feste has made a wise, insightful movie about family, grief, and how awful and how wonderful it is to discover that life goes on after someone you love dies.

| Jul 12, 2010

The title is incorrect.

Full Review | Jun 2, 2010

Yet another film that tries to pass off a whole lot of screaming and crying as great acting. This fails especially in Brosnan's big crying scene, in which he audibly squeaks

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Apr 18, 2010

Overwrought in all the wrong ways, The Greatest doesn't do its normally excellent cast any favors.

| Original Score: C- | Apr 16, 2010

A meditation on loss by a writer-director whose honesty, sensitivity and intelligence more than mitigate the film's histrionic qualities.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 16, 2010

Two gifted young women whose best work will be in other films are the reason to see this one.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 15, 2010

Perhaps the best compliment to give it is that it never comes off as a weepy Lifetime movie. The acting and writing are too good to let that happen.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 15, 2010

It could more appropriately be known as just Good with Brief Moments of Absolute Brilliance.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Apr 12, 2010

Redeemed by its performances, its sporadic, carefully observed moments of truth, and the fact that Feste knows from good drama. The Greatest may be cheesy, but it ain't amateur hour.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 9, 2010

A well-performed tearjerker of the kind that mostly transcends its melodramatic set-up to become something genuinely moving.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 9, 2010

The Greatest isn't even the best recent movie that stars Susan Sarandon as a woman trying to deal with the death of a child while forced into an awkward relationship with the main squeeze of the dead kid.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 9, 2010

Sarandon and Brosnan are very good, indeed, Brosnan surprisingly so. In fact, Brosnan has never been so opened up, so emotional and yet so precise in his work. It's a lovely performance in a film that only sometimes deserves him.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 8, 2010

Though it sometimes feels more like a collection of scenes than a complete story, some moments are so raw and insightful that they feel like a punch to the heart.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 8, 2010

What makes The Greatest work so well is that Feste clearly remembers what it's like to be 18 and to believe your one chance at joy has passed you by.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 8, 2010