The Thorn in the Heart is interesting but never involving. It's a home movie in the truest sense - something for Michel Gondry to watch in his living room, not to play in public.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 6, 2018

This is an interesting vignette. Even if nostalgia and flights of fancy cause Gondry to lose focus.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 1, 2011

Captures the complexities at the heart of any family, with great generosity of spirit.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 13, 2010

The exploration of the complicated relationship between mother and son provides the most compelling, emotionally grounded moments within the film.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 10, 2010

Even as a fan, I found it very self-indulgent.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 9, 2010

Its rambling structure, peppered with lyrical, magical-realist asides, may not be to all tastes, but there's a sense that Gondry wants this to be more than an eccentric personal portrait...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 9, 2010

A touching insight into a family's inner workings.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 8, 2010

We can recognize the portrait for its intimacy and appreciation of the challenges of a life lived, but it doesn't have any other real pull.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 21, 2010

(Gondry's) playfulness keeps the film buoyant even as it delves into the thickets of emotional complications of family lives.

| Aug 11, 2010

Gondry's masterful technique and subtle genre-tweaking almost make one forget that there isn't much drama to the story...

| Original Score: B- | May 27, 2010

Brimming with affection and beautifully shot, but it builds a flimsy case for why it matters.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 13, 2010

Anyone can make a crappy home movie, but it takes an especially self-important one to think anyone other than their own family wants to watch it.

| Original Score: D | Apr 9, 2010

Thorn is Gondry's most personal film, so personal as to be indulgent. But what emerges is his sincere affection for his aunt and a moving emotional experience.

| Apr 5, 2010

This is an extraordinary film.

| Apr 5, 2010

Stylishly filmed, [but] too slight, lazy and not nearly as moving or insightful as it could have been with more piercing and provocative interviews.

| Original Score: 4.45/10 | Apr 3, 2010

Like a guest invited to a family reunion, you feel a bit uncomfortable, question why you're there and wonder how long the event will last.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 3, 2010

As Mr. Gondry unfolds the story of her life, and of her inability to connect with the son she sees as weak, you can understand why it would consume a family(TM)s interest, but you(TM)re not sure why he thought it would pique ours.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 2, 2010

The movie rarely flags, but it is hard to get past the notion that what is onscreen is nothing more than an artfully made home movie and that the Gondry family saga is no more interesting than that of the average loving, if somewhat dysfunctional family.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 2, 2010

So-so documentary about filmmaker Michel Gondry's gregarious elderly aunt and her reminiscences of family and long years teaching kids in rural France. Clearly a joy for nephew Gondry and his aunt, but maybe this should have been kept en famille.

| Apr 2, 2010

The film is well-constructed, as one would expect from Gondry, but it offers little reason for anyone outside the family circle to care about dear old Tante Suzette.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 2, 2010