10 Items or Less

last updated 8 January 2015

This short, airy comedy is the very definition of light entertainment, said Michael Ordona in the Los Angeles Times. Morgan Freeman plays a famous actor who wants to end a four-year hiatus with a role as a grocery store manager in an independent film. In order to research the part, he gets a ride to an authentic market in a poor Hispanic district near Los Angeles, where he is stranded with no phone and no car. He asks the checkout girl (Paz Vega) for a ride, and the two get to talking about life. The 82-minute film is 'œnot deep, but it's a charming enough diversion.' Charming, that is, until we begin to see its condescension, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. Brad Silberling, who also wrote the screenplay, is more used to directing splashy movies such as Lemony Snicket and City of Angels. His portraits of Hispanic families and people who get paid by the hour are stereotypical and out of touch. Perhaps Silberling has been in Hollywood too long to give a film about blue-collar life any 'œgrounding in reality.' He's also forgotten to write a plot into his script, said Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News. Nothing really happens in 10 Items—it's 'œan idea in want of a story.'

Rating: R