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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The Face of Love
Drama · Romance · 2013
A widow falls for a guy who bears a striking resemblance to her late husband.
Movie details
The Face of Love
“She lost her perfect love... until she found his perfect double.”
2013 Drama · Romance 1h 32m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.2 / 10
6.2K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
43 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
51 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.1 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
A widow falls for a guy who bears a striking resemblance to her late husband.
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 The Face of Love?
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.
The Yellow Handkerchief
Drama · 2009
A road trip through Louisiana transforms three strangers who were originally brought together by their respective feelings of loneliness.
Not Easily Broken
Drama · 2009
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Tim
Romance · 1979
Handsome but backward gardener Tim Melville has a new woman in his life. She is Mary, his widowed employer, a woman who had given up on love until she had found Tim. At first they are friends. But soon they become lovers, as Mary, drawn to Tim's innocence and magnetism, begins to teach him all about life - and love.
Iris
Drama · 2001
True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.
The Object of My Affection
Drama · 1998
A pregnant New York social worker begins to develop romantic feelings for her gay best friend, and decides she'd rather raise her child with him, much to the dismay of her overbearing boyfriend.
Stanley & Iris
Drama · 1990
An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.
Lovely, Still
Drama · 2009
A holiday fable that tells the story of an elderly man discovering love for the first time.
Our Souls at Night
Romance · 2017
Addie Moore and Louis Waters, a widow and widower, have lived next to each other for years. The pair have almost no relationship, but that all changes when Addie tries to make a connection with her neighbour.
A Love Song
Drama · 2022
Two childhood sweethearts, now both widowed, share a night by a lake in the mountains.
The Lost Husband
Drama · 2020
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Where it lives
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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Arie Posin
Written by
Matthew McDuffie · Arie Posin
Annette Bening
Nikki Lostorm
Ed Harris
Garret Mathis / Tom Young
Robin Williams
Roger Stillman
Jess Weixler
Summer
Amy Brenneman
Ann
Linda Park
Jan
Jeffrey Vincent Parise
Nicholas
Court is in session
Put The Face of Love 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.