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"Brenda Blethyn etches a most original character and does it with her usual brio. The rest of the cast also shines in this tart tale of familial love and liberation."
Stephen Farber, Hollywood Life
"Brenda Blethyn gives a blistering, engaging performance. Sometimes when an actress like Blethyn is this good we can take her for granted, but Oscars shouldn't."
Thelma Adams, US Weekly
"Brenda Blethyn stars as a sharp-tongued nightclub comedienne who blames her loser ex-husband (Frankie J. Holden) for ruining her big break decades ago, when he spirited her from England to Australia. Now staring down middle age and caring for her grown disabled son, she relies heavily on her older boy (Khan Chittenden), an arrangement threatened by his blossoming affair with a spunky, lissome blond (Emma Booth). As their romance contrasts with the mother's fizzling career, Blethyn creates sympathy for a manipulative, prickly character who's struggling to redefine her roles onstage and off. Director Cherie Nowlan steers the comedy to a feel-good ending."
Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader
"There is a lot of engineered quirkiness in Introducing the Dwights - the movie details the relationship between an aging stand-up comedian and the twentysomething son who reluctantly lives with her - but director Cherie Nowlan has an invaluable trump card: Brenda Blethyn as Jean, the mom. Jean isn't really funny - she relies on a lot of bawdy, anti-men material that has more hate than humor - but that's besides the point. This is a portrait of a woman who gave up her career to have a family, and is now going to make them pay for it. Blethyn somehow manages to keep Jean from being either a cartoonish harridan or a sympathetic heroine. This is a real, lived-in performance that could only come from a show-business veteran herself."
John Larsen, Sun Publications
