Upside Down

Directed by Juan Solanas

(PG-13)

**

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Anyone who sees this science-fiction romance “will either hail it as some kind of crackpot masterpiece or dismiss it as one of the silliest damn things they’ve ever seen,” said Peter Sobczynski in the Chicago Sun-Times. In it, two planets—one occupied by the rich, the other by the poor—sit so close together that their mountain peaks almost touch, providing the stage for a gooey love story about a couple forced to live in separate worlds. Unfortunately, the movie’s Romeo and Juliet pairing “has no life or energy,” said Richard Corliss in Time. Kirsten Dunst’s character is given “little to do but be adored,” while Jim Sturgess works to regain her hand by affecting “an annoying puppy-dog winsomeness.” But Upside Down does at least one thing very well, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. While occasionally splitting the screen horizontally and even showing one or the other of his stars upside down, director Juan Solanas delivers “beautifully burnished images that you’ve never quite seen anywhere else.” Of course, “stunning visuals can’t sustain a feature film,” but in Upside Down, they come close.