An elegant, melancholy movie about storytelling, science vs. religion, family, life, and death.

| Sep 24, 2014

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Some good acting and fine cinematography are watered down in a tepid yawner that moves with the speed of natural selection, but without its irresistible sense of purpose.

| Apr 29, 2010

An intriguing portrait of a man and a time that changed everything.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 17, 2010

The film comes down, in a sense, to what Emma thinks after reading The Origin of Species. Of her verdict she can only say, "May God forgive us both."

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 5, 2010

I'm starting to feel sorry for Paul Bettany.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 25, 2010

...more melodramatic than meaningful. It's a well-intentioned piece that nonetheless is a true snooze.

| Feb 19, 2010

Jon Amiel, the film's director, tells his story with respect and some restraint, showing how sad and weakened Charles is and yet not ratcheting up his grief into unseemly melodrama.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 18, 2010

A great moment in the history of ideas does not necessarily make for a great movie.

| Original Score: C | Feb 12, 2010

While the film's flashbacks and -forwards are disorienting, the performances give the film propulsion and poignancy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 11, 2010

It's smart, heartfelt, handsome and just mutated enough to sustain interest in a specialized subject.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 11, 2010

Amiel commits the cardinal sin of biopics and confuses unenlightening biographical speculation with cutting insight into how a work of such complexity and sheer intelligence was created.

| Jan 27, 2010

The film is never less than intelligent and never more than accomplished.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 25, 2010

Its view of life is that a paradigm-shifting breakthrough, rather than being the product of either solitary genius or cultural ferment, amounts instead to a pretext and a substitute for therapy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 22, 2010

For a movie that clearly seeks to bring Darwin to life, Creation spends an awful lot of time wallowing in death.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 22, 2010

Although the movie tenderly observes the relationship between father and daughter and has some heart-rending moments, there isn't a lot of doubt why it got made: because actors love to do crazy.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 22, 2010

Some questions just can't be answered by science, and the quandary of why Creation is so poundingly dull is one of them.

Full Review | Jan 22, 2010

What begins as a drama about the birth of a great notion -- with its attendant battles between the pro and con sides -- instead becomes a dreary melodrama about family grief.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 22, 2010

Mr. Bettany is a fine and resourceful actor, but Creation is a battle he was doomed to lose.

| Jan 22, 2010

The film's attempt to depict challenging and thoughtful material is appreciated, even if the results are mixed.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 21, 2010