Expired: Critic Reviews

The funny, sad, offbeat, sometimes off-the-beat romance Expired is one of those precariously balanced movies that might fall to pieces with a different cast.

The performances are expert, but can't make up for a flat script and direction.

Morton is one of those tingly actresses whose skin barely covers her soul, and to watch her search for tender mercies in a crazy-hostile world is a gift. The film is appallingly good.

An occasionally cringe-inducing mix of pathos and humor, the tightly scripted and well-acted tale follows a lonely, vulnerable meter maid who falls into a comically horrific relationship with a colleague incapable of emotional intimacy.

One of those Sundance "comedies" that make you contemplate slitting your wrists.

Death and regret hang over the film palpably, and Miniucchi's willingness to put her characters through disaster and humiliation while still plainly empathizing with them is what keeps the film surprising and its characters winning, in spite of themselves

A touching and unlikely romance that is no gloss but all heart and brains.

one of the most inept, poorly-mounted productions of the decade

Unconventionally quirky in its unassuming blue-collar bluntness, Expired is comically horrifying in its examination of lonely people living on the fringe of professional obscurity and personalized disarray.

Expired pretends to be a valentine to society's outcasts, but it's just one more indie comedy that mocks its characters while sucking up to its knowing audience.

Miniucchi's screenplay is an unwieldy blend of pathos and unsettling moments, which become increasingly uninteresting as the film trudges to a dreary close.

The temptation is to say Expired is closer to "Misfired," but there are just enough good things here (particularly Samantha Morton as a lonely-in-love meter maid) to avoid that label.

Call it an anti-rom-com, and see it if you can.

Despite terrific efforts from its lead players, Expired runs its meter out long before the end.

Locating both Claire's loneliness and Jay's anger as partial outgrowths of their detested profession handing out parking meter violation tickets, Expired coasts along on a distinctively odd wavelength.

Turns its uncomfortable central relationship into a fascinating study of symbiotic personalities.

Tough indie drama features great performances.

Both Patric and Morton give brazenly fearless performances, yet these talents are left tangoing to a tune that's nowhere near worthy of them.

Assuming the shape of an old-fashioned indie, this offbeat romantic fable is a minor work that promises better things from its director; the narrative is considerably elevated by lead performers Jason Patric and the endlessly creative Samantha Morton.

How likely is it that love, not to mention hot sex, can blossom between two people who've picked identical careers dedicated to punishing the rest of us? Delightfully kinky sex and the city meter maid romp.

Evokes a relationship so acidic between a couple of meter maids that the woman would probably feel better breathing in the acidic fumes outside than putting up with her man's insults.

The movie forces us to endure so much meanness without a proper resolution at the end of it. It's all ordeal and no payoff.