Maggenti sticks to a format of mildly clever verbal banter when the audience desperately needs to be distracted from the bad novel Allegra is making of her love life.

| May 21, 2020

| Original Score: B- | Sep 7, 2011

Fresh Manhattan locations prove as photogenic as the leads, and the supporting actors -- especially Tina Benko as a glacial, impeccably dressed amazon -- don't miss a beat of Maggenti's snappy dialogue.

| Dec 17, 2007

It's amiable enough but there's nothing on show to make it stand out from the average rom-com.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 26, 2007

Puccini is the joyously refreshing romancer that it tries so hard to be. Its success has a lot to do with its casting directors who have peopled both the major and minor roles with aplomb. Even off-off-Broadway legend Helen Hanft has a cameo.

| Jun 8, 2007

Thankfully, Puccini for Beginners isn't quite as exploitative as you might expect for a movie about a bisexual love triangle. But that's about all the credit this flat-footed, would-be screwball comedy gets.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 18, 2007

Beware the indie screwball comedy that uses opera as a metaphor and lives in that dreamspace between Greenwich Village bookstores and the characters' belly buttons.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 18, 2007

Maggenti has fun messing around with gender and sexuality stereotypes as well as relationship roles, and strives to hammer home the point that both men and women can devolve into comically clingy wrecks.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2007

[Actress] Reaser is no slouch in the emotionally befuddled whirlwind department. In the end, it's all la dolce vita no matter how you look at it.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 14, 2007

...flickers with good intentions, but the final result is flat and featureless...

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 6, 2007

When a script that considers itself smart, sassy and even intellectual comes across as juvenile and dopey, what went wrong?

| Mar 31, 2007

Reaser really doesn't stand a chance. She's plucky as heck, and you like her despite the script, but she can't save the movie.

| Original Score: C- | Mar 23, 2007

There is pleasure and even insight to be had in Puccini but it all feels second-hand, and therefore, of questionable provenance.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 23, 2007

Puccini for Beginners doesn't quite make it as romantic comedy. Most of the elements are in place, but the characters seem too narcissistic to fall in love and too broad-brush to be authentic.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 16, 2007

Has a likable smartness to it; like a good Woody Allen film with a gay twist.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 16, 2007

[Director Maria] Maggenti tries hard to be snappy and smart but the tossed-off repartee sounds off-key and behind the beat.

| Original Score: C | Mar 15, 2007

It's no fun to sit through the movie's retread Woody Allenisms, including postmodern repartee among the self-absorbed or giddily neurotic and passing strangers suddenly given to ironic Greek chorus-like commentary.

| Mar 15, 2007

If you're willing to veer away from your more traditional romantic comedies, this is worth watching.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 9, 2007

Puccini for Beginners is littered with witty dialogue, although some of it is so obviously scripted that it can become off-putting.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 3, 2007

An engaging romantic quadrangle.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 2, 2007