A hate crime on the campus of a New England college puts the school's dean (Parker) in a position where she has to examine her own feelings about race and prejudice, while maintaining her administration's politically correct policies.
The foils have no compunction about hurling ugly truths at each other, most of the time much too literally to work on screen.
– Glenn Whipp,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Mar 2009
rotten:
The staging by theater director Mark Brokaw, in his first feature, is, well, stagy. I don't mind a movie where people spend a lot of time jawboning, but what they say had better be interesting.
– Peter Rainer,
Christian Science Monitor,
30 Mar 2009
rotten:
This movie would've been bad in 1983, but at least it would've been original.
– Ben Mankiewicz,
At the Movies,
30 Mar 2009
rotten:
It feels like an after school special.
– Ben Lyons,
At the Movies,
30 Mar 2009
rotten:
The biggest lesson from Spinning Into Butter has nothing to do with the ethics of race and more with realizing that every hit play doesn't need to be turned into a movie.