Having recently lost his mother, teenager Henry Nearing develops a crush on seductive classmate Grace, who toys with him. Though he has been friends with Merna for a long time, he fails to see her sincere attraction to him, and instead wastes time with the uncaring Grace.
Smart, funny and, thanks in no small part to David Geddes' cinematography, it occasionally approaches the poetic.
– Michael Ordona,
Los Angeles Times,
12 Oct 2006
fresh:
...cinematic youth has rarely seemed so convincingly uncertain, and Brewster could definitely drive a young guy crazy.
– Luke Y. Thompson,
Village Voice,
13 Oct 2006
rotten:
The performances by Smith, Brewster and veteran David Morse, as a morbidly depressed widower, elevate Nearing Grace to something near grace.
– Jack Mathews,
New York Daily News,
13 Oct 2006
rotten:
The story here is as dog-eared as an old beach book, and about as deep.
– Stephen Whitty,
Newark Star-Ledger,
13 Oct 2006
rotten:
Moral dilemmas faced by immature teens is fine fare for young-adult fiction, but a movie that wants them to be taken as something bigger needs better management than Nearing Grace can provide.