Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Gunn I have been waiting for this Gem to come out on DVD since the 90s and finally it's here. It's available only through Warner Bros. Archive Collection at $17.99 plus tax & shipping and unfortunately it is a bare-bones DVD with NO Extra Features. It was worth it to me as this film is so great. I agree with the bulk of the reviews here that: the acting is superior and riveting, the script and dialog are spot on, Paul Brickman (Risky Business) co-wrote and directed with aplomb. The story takes us through so many emotions but in the end we are rewarded for "taking the ride." Jessica Lange is always good but this is one of her finest performances. Arliss Howard is an unlikely "hero" and Chris O'Donnell and Charlie Korsmo are perfect as Lange's sons. The always quirky but dependable Joan Cusack is excellent as a care-giver nurse. Kathy Bates has a small role as Lange's boss and as always she makes the most of her performance. This is a very moving, emotional film and one of the Best of the 90s films.

xavrush89 You know the line "You had me at Hello"? Well, this movie had me at "The Geffen Company Presents..." There's just something so endearing about this quirky comedy. Sorry for the clichés, but I think just about everyone could find something about themselves in this story, even if they've never experienced depression. Some of my favorite movies mix comedy and drama, and this is a prime example (slightly more on the comedic side, but it's debatable). I also thought this was my first exposure to Kathy Bates, but I didn't realize until much later that I had already seen her in "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean" and in a bit part in "Two of a Kind". She's a chameleon; I still didn't recognize her 11 months later in "Misery." Cusack has an even better chance to shine. And as for Lange, for someone playing a character so weary, she's luminous. There's also an appearance by a woman who was semi-famous as a quirky waitress in Miracle Whip commercials ("How'd they know turquoise was mah color?") in this. She hilariously plays a musician here. But the real find was Charlie Korsmo (also in "Dick Tracy" later the same year), eleven years old at the time of filming but looking younger. Like Shirley Temple, I know he's an adult now, but I don't want to see him grown up. His performance is the heart and soul of "Men Don't Leave." I don't own a copy of it, because I'm afraid I might watch it every day. You either love it or you don't get it.

dh0405 Ho-hum. Another "what's a housewife to do after she's left on her own" flick. You have your helpless mother, your surly teenager, and your depressed little kid. Enter Joan Cusack and Arliss Howard with two fine performances (I especially liked the accordian sequence)and the film comes alive. However, I sensed no real rapport between Lange and Howard. In fact, Lange seemed to have walked through her role as an after-thought.

moonspinner55 Widow with two growing sons must become her family's breadwinner, keeping everyone's spirits up while dating again for the first time in many years. It doesn't surprise me that people have to see this picture twice or more to get into the movie's grooves. The handling is very focused, the writing gets us from A to Z smoothly enough, but the tone of "Men Don't Leave" is quirky, to say the least. Sometimes I wasn't sure whether to laugh or not. At times it seems to go overboard, other times it hits a perfect note yet doesn't follow through. Still, the overall effect of this movie is genuinely pleasurable. It's not a big, chancy movie with issues, it's quiet and small and heartfelt. There are little scenes of emotion that well up into big hurts (and disappointments like the lottery family that just KILL us), and all the acting is so wonderful, particularly Jessica Lange (a shaky tower of strength). I loved it when the German woman gets Jessica to dance, or when she gets a nosebleed while kissing Arliss Howard for the first time, or throwing all her muffins out the window while feigning basketball moves. And what about Kathy Bates as the boss from Hell? It's an erratic film (with a puzzling title), yet I admired it greatly, and it has stuck with me over all these years. ***1/2 from ****