On the surface, this strange film could leave you thinking that not much actually happened... but it's the idiosyncratic emotional journey, expertly portrayed by Nighy and the ensemble, rather than the destination that sticks with you.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 10, 2020

I ended up enjoying Sometimes Always Never a heck of a lot. It made me happy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 29, 2020

What the film does sustain, and quite remarkably, considering its serious theme, is a delicately comic tone. That's due in large measure to the screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

| Jun 18, 2020

We remain engaged due to quiet performances made all the more impressive by how they cut through such noisy visual style.

| Jun 17, 2020

It has a stylized, low-key eccentricity... Nighy is just fantastic.

| Jun 12, 2020

One of those comedies that teeters on the edge of being dark, irredeemable, bitter, and funny... But it's an enjoyable film.

| Jun 12, 2020

For those attuned to its delicate balance of whimsy and melancholy--not to mention anyone eager to see Bill Nighy at the very top of his game--it is, by design, a magnificent trifle.

| Jun 12, 2020

A sometimes wobbly, sometimes engaging, always well-acted tale of family estrangement and reconciliation.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 12, 2020

This extremely dry film mixes humor and melancholy to distinctive, if muffled, effect. Take away the muffled part, and that's very Nighy, too.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 12, 2020

It's Nighy who will have you enthralled. He delivers a subtle, nuanced performance that allows the actor to shine while in full support of his costars.

| Jun 11, 2020

If nothing else, Hunter's film offers some of the most hi-octane Scrabble action ever captured on camera. That scores it a few points at least, if not enough to win.

| Original Score: C | Jun 10, 2020

Strong casting keeps the film thriving through its many winding subplots.

| Jun 10, 2020

The film unites its seemingly disparate strands of somber drama and deadpan comedy into a surprisingly cohesive whole.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 9, 2020

It's no real murder-mystery, but it does pose questions that transcend who did what to whom and when. One of which being whether or not you can really play "jazz" in Scrabble.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 4, 2019

Often, the whole shebang plays like a rattle bag of tropes, digressions and stray running gags. Then again, that randomness is perfectly apt...

| Jun 23, 2019

Despite strong performances and a witty script, Sometimes Always Never lays on the homage a little too thick for its own good, shortchanging itself by imitating a particularly idiosyncratic style.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 17, 2019

An off-beat comedy written by Frank Cottrell Boyce in which Bill Nighy plays a controlling, mordantly witty Scouser coming to terms with the unwritten rules of life.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 16, 2019

Screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, who adapted the film from his own short story, has crafted a joy of a script, which seeds its themes as elegantly as Nighy's character, Alan, a Scrabble-obsessed tailor, wears his suits.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 16, 2019

I was really surprised by how much it moved me, how touched I was...

| Jun 14, 2019

The sweet emotional payoff is an unexpected reward.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 14, 2019