Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
Nimble, off the beaten track and very entertaining, it's the cinematic equivalent of a lava lamp.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
Fascinating, nimbly acted and, an er, eye-opening look at the culture of male dominance of a couple generations past.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
For all its tonal shifts and erratic pacing, the film is Burton's heartfelt tribute to the yearning that drives even the most marginalized artist to self expression no matter what the hell anyone thinks.

Name : Richard Corliss / Alias : TIME Magazine
The Keane story is a rich parable that deserves either a wilder or a more acute telling than Burton provides here.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
"Big Eyes" doesn't seem to trust either the factual truth or the emotional logic of the dilemma it's showing us.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
"Big Eyes" toys with some amusing ideas, and that's enough.

Name : Inkoo Kang / Alias : TheWrap
"The most human film from Burton since "Ed Wood," this biopic of kitsch painter Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) marks a small but significant artistic growth."

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
This nimble, bemused, culturally curious look at the married instigators of the kitschy "big eyes" paintings of the early 1960s exudes an enjoyably eccentric appeal while also painting a troubling picture of male dominance and female submissiveness .

Name : Bruce Demara / Alias : Toronto Star
It dwells in that amorphously ill-defined zone, Dramedyland, a place from whence audiences too often return with a shrug and a vague sense of confusion and disappointment.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A smart, funny, feel-good film - from Tim Burton? It's his best since "Ed Wood."

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
In "Big Eyes," the sincerity of the artist trumps the judgment of the critics, and her vision triumphs over fraudulent promotion. It makes a passionate case for her. Whether it vindicates her art is another question entirely.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
Burton might need to get further from blockbuster bloat in order to regain his formal mastery of kitsch. Right now his sense of comic portraiture is too easily mistakable for splatter painting.

Name : Betsy Sharkey / Alias : Los Angeles Times
This portrait of a woman on the verge - of success, of suppression, of submission, of rebellion - is never fully realized.

Name : Dave Calhoun / Alias : Time Out
Burton lets Waltz run wild, sucking the air out of every scene with his hysterics, and the always-endearing Adams is left looking like a rabbit in the headlights.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : L.A. Weekly
You can't help but sense Tim Burton nodding in agreement when Walter bellows, "Just because people like my work, does that make it bad?"

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
Big Eyes has plenty of surface pleasures, but there was reason to expect more than that from it.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
A wondrously strange true story about art and heartbreak, intellectual property theft, and the subjugation of women.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The story is just so downright weird that the film can't help but be compelling. Just not as compelling as it could have been.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Visually inventive, as are all of Burton's movies, "Big Eyes" is pleasant enough to watch; you just wish there were more to it.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Adams is lovely and tremulous, but Big Eyes would be even better if Waltz was in the same key.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
I watched wide-eyed with dismay while the film turned as lifeless as the paintings.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
Waltz ham-and-eggs Adams off the screen. In the process, the movie strands her character without an inner life, a psychology, or anything that would indicate what makes her tick.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz are charismatic in the lead roles; occasionally they distract from the movie's overall smugness.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
A straightforward and mature film with little in the way of overt weirdness.

Name : James Adams / Alias : Globe and Mail
Burton lets his film putter along in middle gear, provoking neither riotous laughter nor emotional immersion.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
What matters is, does the artist speak through this work? And does this work speak to you? And "Big Eyes" does. I just wish it spoke louder.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
"Big Eyes" is technically and aesthetically attractive.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
Adams is very good at the difficult art of making passive characters interesting - a gift that stands her in good stead here.

Name : Elizabeth Weitzman / Alias : New York Daily News
"Big Eyes" is still a compelling film, well presented and solidly performed by leads Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. But more weirdness would have done wonders.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Tim Burton fashions the perfect frame around these actors and then lets them fill out this marvelous creation.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Despite its sharp feminist sting, Big Eyes never loses its light touch. Maybe the lesson here is that Burton should venture out of his dark, creepy comfort zone more often.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
Instead of comic and dramatic provocation, "Big Eyes" settles for a pastel set of emotions lost in a primary color world.

Name : Calvin Wilson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Throughout his career, Burton has always been capable of surprising audiences. "Big Eyes" is no exception.