Inventing the Abbotts

The film belongs to Phoenix ("To Die For"), who is terrific. He has the gift, shared with his late brother, River, of conveying emotions without pushing them at you. The delicacy of his scenes with Tyler lets you enjoy the film for what it truly is: a heartbreaker.Read Full Review »

Inventing the Abbotts has the cast and characters to be something special; the script just isn't ambitious enough.Read Full Review »

Best watched as a showcase for radiant young talent.Read Full Review »

The only real heat among the group comes from Jennifer Connelly, who, as the bad-girl middle daughter, raises the stakes any time she's on screen.Read Full Review »

The picture is haunted by a story problem: It isn't about anything but itself. There's no sense of life going on in the corners of the frame.Read Full Review »

Inventing the Abbotts is pointless soap opera, anecdotal and superficial, mixing sibling rivalry, class conflict and tragic romantic entanglements in a style that mimics fictional life in the '50s more than it illuminates what went on.Read Full Review »

Inventing the Abbotts would be a lot more fun were it a trashy Troy Donahue-Diane McBain vehicle ground out by Warner Bros. in 1960, the year this hormonally motivated high school-college romance mercifully concludes. [4 April 1997, p. 4D]Read Full Review »

Too long winded and dull.Read Full Review »

The goofy hysteria of something like "A Summer Place" was infinitely more entertaining and emotionally authentic than the distant smugness of this failed clone. [7 April 1997, p. 76]Read Full Review »