The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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Griffin & Phoenix
Comedy · Drama · Romance · 2006
A terminally ill man falls in love with a woman who has a secret that threatens their time spent together.
Movie details
Griffin & Phoenix
“A love story with no expectations.”
2006 Comedy · Drama · Romance 1h 42m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
7.1 / 10
Community rating
A terminally ill man falls in love with a woman who has a secret that threatens their time spent together.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Griffin & Phoenix?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Ordinary Love
Drama · 2019
An extraordinary look at the lives of a middle-aged couple in the midst of the wife's breast cancer diagnosis.
Not Easily Broken
Drama · 2009
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Quartet
Drama · 2012
Cissy, Reggie, and Wilf are in a home for retired musicians. Every year, there is a concert to celebrate Composer Giuseppe Verdi's birthday and they take part. Jean, who used to be married to Reggie, arrives at the home and disrupts their equilibrium. She still acts like a diva, but she refuses to sing. Still, the show must go on, and it does.
Father of the Bride
Romance · 2022
A father comes to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding through the prism of multiple relationships within a big, sprawling Cuban-American family.
A Little Bit of Heaven
Comedy · 2011
A guarded woman finds out she's dying of cancer but, when she meets her match, the threat of falling in love is scarier than death.
The Baltimorons
Comedy · 2025
A newly sober man's Christmas Eve dental emergency leads to an unexpected romance with his older dentist as they explore Baltimore together.
Hope Springs
Drama · 2012
After thirty years of marriage, a middle-aged couple attends an intense, week-long counseling session to work on their relationship.
Which Brings Me to You
Romance · 2023
Two romantic burnouts, Jane and Will, are immediately drawn to each other at a mutual friend’s wedding. After a disastrous hookup in the coatroom, the two spend the next 24 hours together, trading candid confessions of messy histories and heartbreak, on the off chance that this fling might be the real thing.
Cosi
Comedy · 1996
Lewis, a young amateur theater director, is offered a job with a governmental program for the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients in a Sydney institution. His project is overrun by one of the patients, who wants to stage the opera Cosi Fan Tutte by Mozart, despite the fact that none of the patients can sing or speak Italian. A comedy of errors ensues, but one which unifies the patients and their director in unexpected ways.
Anything Else
Drama · 2003
Jerry Falk, an aspiring writer in New York, falls in love at first sight with a free-spirited young woman named Amanda. He has heard the phrase that life is like "anything else," but soon he finds that life with the unpredictable Amanda isn't like anything else at all.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Ed Stone
Written by
John Hill
Amanda Peet
Sarah Phoenix
Dermot Mulroney
Henry Griffin
Sarah Paulson
Peri
Blair Brown
Eve
Alison Elliott
Terry
Lois Smith
Dr. Imberman
J
Jonah Meyerson
Kirk
Court is in session
Put Griffin & Phoenix on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.