There are moments when the pace isn’t as engaging and some of the set pieces fall flat, but Honoré still manages to keep things moving in a way that makes this fanciful character study interesting.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 5, 2022

Even with the film's somewhat wacky tone, Honore constantly finds deeper observations that resonate strongly.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 25, 2020

Like a magical realist A Christmas Carol for couples two decades into a marriage, On a Magical Night is a playful and adult examination of long-term commitment.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 22, 2020

Yet, somehow, inexplicably, the movie is ponderous and flat, and needlessly freighted with tedious exchanges about the transience of love and the requirements of fidelity.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 22, 2020

[An] impish, rarefied morality play.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 21, 2020

On a Magical Night confuses what is admittedly a charming conceit for depth. Nevertheless, that charm is enough to sustain the picture across its 90-minute runtime, even if its effects quickly recede into memory.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 18, 2020

On a Magical Night finally feels recitative of past lovelorn material - especially given the classic Paris setting - rather than fully alive.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 17, 2020

Sadly, while the intention may be a Big Fish-esque rumination on everyone's penchant for self-mythologizing, it's more a Sliding Doors-style tale of shoulda, woulda, coulda that never quite does.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 29, 2020

Chiara Mastroianni is genetically predisposed to be watchable on camera (her parents are Catherine Deneuve and the late Marcello Mastroianni), and her performance as Maria is both beguiling and maddening.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 26, 2020

An inventive and delightful comedy for grownups.

| May 18, 2020

A terrific, strange, new spin on a relationship comedy--what you'd get if you were to cross 'A Christmas Carol' with a sex farce.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 16, 2020

An homage to French cinema's most advanced romantic comedies, it is also a wholly original film.

| May 15, 2020

I wish this film was a little lighter and had more lyricism to it, but it's pretty stage-bound and doesn't add up to a lot.

| May 12, 2020

There are periodic sparks from the imagination of Christophe Honoré, but too often you wind up hoping for something more interesting to happen than what ultimately does.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 10, 2020

[W]e don't believe in these characters and conflicts any more than we believe that one's former paramours could be conjured in a hotel suite. But at least it's fun while it lasts.

| Original Score: B- | May 8, 2020

The whole thing is only as original as a dull midlife crisis, retrofitted into a whimsical screwball mold that feels miscalculated.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 8, 2020

Honoré is working in the mode of comic fantasy to get at the heart of this relationship and these characters.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 8, 2020

It's best when it surrenders to the whimsy of its premise, but often is so busy articulating its ideas that it misses the fun of bringing them to life.

| Original Score: B- | May 7, 2020

Despite the fantastic premise and the ostensibly comedic bits of business Honoré strews throughout, the movie's treatment of its themes still too often lists toward a near-ponderous solemnity.

| May 7, 2020

Christophe Honoré deposits all his chips on the comedic premise at the expense of character study and gravitas.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 5, 2020