Graham Young Birmingham Mail Feb 26, 2026 3/4

A potent ingredients list, spiced with a brooding atmosphere and simmered and stirred into a poignant tale of wounded lives looking for something better.

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Mike Davies Birmingham Post Dec 20, 2023

Avoiding sentimentality and defying expectations, Mangold evokes a subdued brooding atmosphere, weaving a poignant rites of passage tale of wounded lives reaching out for but desperately afraid of change.

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Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader Jun 14, 2022

The performances are strong (my favorite is that of Deborah Harry as an older waitress) and the sense of eroded as well as barely articulated lives is palpable.

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Michael Atkinson Spin Apr 19, 2022

Super-real, uncompromised, and blazingly homely, Heavy is a movie covered with honest work blisters -- nothing interests first-time writer/ director James Mangold quite as much as simply watching an ordinary person do their job.

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Rob Gonsalves Rob's Movie Vault Apr 9, 2007 C

The movie has a kind of elegance, but it's a very long sit.

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Brian Tallerico UGO Mar 24, 2007 3/5

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Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Dec 4, 2006 B+

Showing observational skills, James Mangold has made a quiet, personal film that contests the stereotypes with which Hollywood has portrayed overweight people.

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Thomas Delapa Boulder Weekly Oct 4, 2005 2/5

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Willie Waffle WaffleMovies.com Jan 18, 2005 4/5

Pruitt Taylor Vince will amaze you with his subtle but powerful portrayal of the lovable Victor.

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Jon Niccum Lawrence Journal-World Aug 27, 2004 3/5

Features a subtle performance by Vince

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Michael Dequina TheMovieReport.com Apr 25, 2004 3/5

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Frank Swietek One Guy's Opinion Mar 22, 2004 3/5

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Carol Cling Las Vegas Review-Journal Aug 22, 2003 4/5

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Susan Tavernetti Palo Alto Weekly May 20, 2003 3/4

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Philip Martin Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Jan 29, 2003 3/5

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Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality & Practice Aug 21, 2002

Explores the same kind of territory pioneered in the short fiction of Raymond Carver.

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Tyler McLeod Jam! Movies Jul 1, 2002 3/5

A slice of life drama that, like the characters it portrays, plods along at its own pace. All the while engaging the viewer.

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Shlomo Schwartzberg Boxoffice Magazine Jun 5, 2002 3/5

Effectively delineates those people whose lives merely exist on the margins of society.

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Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times Feb 14, 2001 4/5

A small, quiet miracle of a movie in which tenderness, compassion and insight combine to create a tension that yields a quality of perception that's almost painful to experience.

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Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Jan 1, 2000 A

Everything about this original film seemed honest and natural.

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