Name : Noel Murray / Alias : Los Angeles Times
At times, this movie feels too much like the Christian version of "The Phantom Menace," offering unnecessary explanations for well-known stories.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
We know how the story ends, so there's little in the way of tension.

Name : Christian Holub / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The Young Messiah struggles to hold its audience's attention.

Name : Andy Webster / Alias : New York Times
"The Young Messiah" performs no miracles.

Name : Keith Uhlich / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
This uninspiring, borderline inept spiritual drama about the Son of God's formative years preaches to the choir.

Name : Dave White / Alias : TheWrap
Perhaps realizing that enticing nonbelievers into another movie about the life of Christ may necessitate the wild-style of a director like Darren Aronofsky, the filmmakers decided to play it safe rather than risk conservative Evangelical rejection.

Name : Nick Schager / Alias : Variety
This pious drama is a work of minimal imagination and even less subtlety.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Nicely served on both sides of the camera, this is a concise and involving rendition of the story of a resilient young woman who comes into property in Victorian England's West Country and is courted by three suitors, all of whom have pluses and minuses.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
What does register at every turn is a vibrant sense of time and place that pulls us into Hardy's bygone world even when the drama falters.