Synopsis
Based on Michael Chabon's novel, the film chronicles the defining summer of a recent college graduate who crosses his gangster father and explores love, sexuality, and the enigmas surrounding his life and his city.
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Cast
- Jon FosterArt Bechstein
- Peter SarsgaardCleveland Arning
- Sienna MillerJane Bellwether
- Mena SuvariPhlox Lombardi
- Omid AbtahiMohammed
- Nick NolteJoe Bechstein
- Keith Michael GregoryKeith
- Ali ReedFemale Book Barn Employee
- James A. HarperTeen Book Barn Employee
- Don WadsworthClass Instructor
- 80
The Hollywood Reporter
In the film's most flamboyant role, Peter Sarsgaard's devil-ish charisma and cold bluster is frightening. - 70
Variety
The full warmth and idiosyncrasy of Chabon's original is missed in an adaptation that feels more impersonally observed. But Lawson's pic, (with the director making a left turn from prior feature "Dodgeball," which he says was a money gig undertaken to hasten this dream project) is entertaining and involving enough on its own terms. - 60
Film Threat
Disappointed fans of Michael Chabon will have to watch "Wonder Boys" for solace, for The Mysteries of Pittsburgh boasts only one core mystery: how one can take such promising material and render it completely unmemorable? - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie is all the more artificial because it has been made with great, almost painful, earnestness. - 42
The A.V. Club
Only Sarsgaard shows a pulse, creating a self-destructive, omnisexual rogue who, for all his faults, would probably be great company. The same can't be said for the film around him. - 40
New York Daily News
Marries an unengaging love triangle to a flat visual style, nearly squashing the one good thing in it -- a scruffy, slouching performance from Peter Sarsgaard. - 38
Chicago Tribune
A coming-of-ager that nearly slaughters you by minute 30 with the relentlessness of its protagonist's voiceovers. - 38
Boston Globe
Almost nothing works in this movie.