Much more affected than I expected...I'd like to see more films starring her. Very well-written.

| Feb 9, 2021

To its credit, the film never jumps to glib conclusions about who Sam is or might become. Nor can I doubt that its heart is in the right place, even if there's a degree of hokey sentimentality in the premise.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 3, 2021

A tender, earnest tale of how love and nurturing can truly change lives.

| Original Score: B | Feb 1, 2021

The sentimental tropes are coupled with such good intentions about the importance of tolerance that one could feel like a jerk for even daring to let the slightest bit of cynicism creep in.

| Jan 31, 2021

The film's treatment of a gender-nonconforming character is clear-eyed.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 31, 2021

Palmer isn't a bad movie. It's decent, in more ways than one, with its heart in the right place and a couple of moving moments.

| Jan 30, 2021

It's fine... If you want to watch Justin Timberlake be cute with a kid for a couple of hours, great. If not, then you can skip it.

| Jan 30, 2021

Palmer is a sneaky kind of vanity project... It works to shrink and reshape Timberlake into a serious actor with a political heart, imbued with a mission toward social justice.

| Jan 29, 2021

While many movies have played this premise for laughs, in Palmer the set-up is played for sentiment, and an effective one at that.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 29, 2021

Palmer certainly doesn't break any ground, but its simple story is sensitively told.

| Jan 29, 2021

It'd be an insult to real Oscar-bait to even call this Oscar-bait. And yet, compelling performances make "Palmer" watchable and fairly affecting despite the fact that we've seen this kind of thing so many times before.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 29, 2021

In a shameless weeper that plays it strictly by the cliché book, compensation comes from the rugged sincerity of Justin Timberlake as an ex-con who becomes a surrogate dad to a gender-nonconformist seven-year-old, wonderfully acted by Ryder Allen.

| Jan 29, 2021

Like a bad egg set to boil, a rugged ex-convict softens and then cracks in the pallid drama "Palmer."

| Jan 29, 2021

Few elements of Justin Timberlake's new movie "Palmer" are ever *NSYNC.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jan 29, 2021

It has a lot of heart, and heart matters.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 29, 2021

What Palmer indicates, aside from Justin Timberlake being a terrific actor, is that time and the proper talent can make a clichéd premise into something classic.

| Jan 29, 2021

Director Fisher Stevens (working from a finely constructed screenplay by Cheryl Guerriero) delivers a solidly built, well-paced story that feels true to the locale and the characters.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 28, 2021

Cheryl Guerriero's screenplay doesn't have anything new to say, but delivers a comforting look at two "outsiders" finding a connection.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 28, 2021

Palmer is, in every sense of the word, decent. It's familiar, and predictable, and a little bit hokey. But it's also genuinely moving and surprisingly memorable, thanks to its two leads.

| Jan 28, 2021

"Palmer's" greatest strength is its good intentions.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 28, 2021