Head Over Heels (2001) | Rotten Tomatoes (2025)

10% Tomatometer 89 Reviews 56% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings

Although she has an excellent job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a fabulous apartment with model roommates, New Yorker Amanda Pierce (Monica Potter) remains unlucky in love and intent on finding the right guy. When she develops a crush on neighbor Jim Winston (Freddie Prinze Jr.), she begins to spy on him and witnesses his apparent involvement in a murder. Since things don't add up, she tries to figure out what really happened -- and if she still has a shot at dating the guy.

Head Over Heels

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Head Over Heels is being blasted by critics as a huge mess. The plot and jokes are idiotic, while the toilet humor is gratuitous and more gross than funny.

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Critics Reviews

View All (89) Critics Reviews
Head Over Heels (2001) | Rotten Tomatoes (1) Nell Minow Common Sense Media Romance, pratfalls, grossout jokes in lame comedy. Rated: 2/5 Dec 24, 2010 Full Review Head Over Heels (2001) | Rotten Tomatoes (2) Lisa Alspector Chicago Reader The best jokes are on the models and the men who pursue them, and Shalom Harlow, Ivana Milicevic, Sarah O'Hare, and Tomiko Fraser -- the real models who play Potter's roommates --are very good sports. Feb 27, 2007 Full Review Head Over Heels (2001) | Rotten Tomatoes (3) Tim Cogshell Boxoffice Magazine Between the ridiculous stereotypes and "stupid model" jokes, the comedy in Head Over Heels stands up. The romance, on the other hand, simmers but never really boils. Rated: 2/5 Jun 5, 2002 Full Review Head Over Heels (2001) | Rotten Tomatoes (4) Betsy Bozdech DVDJournal.com Head Over Heels' problems start with its title. It might as well have been called Generic Romantic Comedy #47 -- it's that bland. Rated: 1/4 Oct 21, 2006 Full Review Head Over Heels (2001) | Rotten Tomatoes (5) Eugene Novikov Film Blather The screenwriters' desperation is palpable at times. Rated: C- May 22, 2003 Full Review Head Over Heels (2001) | Rotten Tomatoes (6) Jim Shelby Palo Alto Weekly [It] just gets dumber and dumber. Rated: 1.5/4 May 20, 2003 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Rhaidot I like it, simple but funny. Models did a better acting than I expected Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Jasmine C Don't take it seriously, it's just a comedy. No one should be expecting a masterpiece. My sister and I watched this movie probably a hundred times on VHS and just rewatched it tonight. It's a great time for a silly night with some wine. We probably have some nostalgia glasses on but it still makes us laugh. Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review dustin d Head Over Heels appeals to the demographic of rom-com/chick-flick fans who find poop jokes funny (nobody). During the first act I was actually invested in the story of a Renaissance painting restorer (an interesting occupation) who constantly makes Freudian slips around the dreamy Freddie Prinze Jr. I liked the supporting characters, including her supermodel roommates. The whole movie should have been like that. Alas, it instead descends into a comfortably routine plot involving the Russian mafia and FBI. It's one of those stories that requires every character acting stupid in order to maintain its momentum, which is frustrating. It was harmless enough, but was set up to be a flop. Rated 2/5 Stars • Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review steve d Mildly entertaining and completely predictable. Rated 3/5 Stars • Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Simply awful, total CRAP-FEST...figurative and literal. Skip it. But if you must know, perhaps in order to learn how NOT to write, produce, direct, and cast a silly, gross rom-com for pre-pubescent girls, here's your chance.Though filmed in 2001, it feels like 1980's CHEESE somehow (writer, director influence?). Why young, straight men with thin wallets and cheap suits would methodically lose their minds over tranny-looking, materialistic, learning disabled, egocentric, parasitical "models" is just plain silly (with waiting lists to interact, of course). However, these particular models could easily turn away mature, wealthy sugar-daddies like "Big" from TV's Sex and the City. Sure. They. Could. Professional models from that time period should be offended. Within minutes, you'll suffer from the atrocious content and delivery of dialogue, including one too many "jokes" about male dog humping, child molestation and pedo-lust, esp. in the Australian outback. Apparently the FOUR adult men who wrote, and the one who directed, this female-centric humdinger are desperately imagining what young girls want in a rom-com.First, with NO LESS than five men creatively working on this movie, they managed to title it "Head Over Heels" when there is nary a reference to it. Perhaps they meant brains (head) over beauty (heels) with the whole models versus art restorer, but all the young ladies were inanely helpless in their own way. A title of "Weak in the Knees" would have made more sense, since this problem was portrayed ad nauseam. The acting is like a high school play, the main actress appears too "maternal" next to the miscast "professional" male lead who looks to be a college boy. Saving grace: one of the writers had a deep moment, so the male character uses an asthma inhaler, so as to be flawed...OR pulmonary disorders are funny to address during action scenes? In the end, somebody cast two leads who inspire an odd-couple with "ick" factor, along the lines of brother and sister shenanigans...but then they kiss/have sex with absolutely no chemistry or sweat. While there's no revealing nudity, the fake heavy breathing does what it can on the sofa or when weak in the knees. The overly moody, weepy, bumbling, stuttering, supposedly intelligent art-restorer is ridiculous and completely helpless until the end. She's likened to three little, old ladies coworkers who apparently have no life, or no one to love, outside of the art and their cats...so she's supposedly doomed without things like artificially enhanced beauty, superficial relationships with either gender, and lots of attention to your own needs. Like a junior high girl's idea of the "grown-up" world. The ridiculous plot is further enhanced by senseless, misplaced TOILET humor....literal poop, farts, and all. Yes, juvenile and gross. Inexplicably, the music generally made the visuals feel even more disingenuous. Unless you're a 12-year-old girl, this film will seem beyond juvenile, but fairly harmless in its fake world of romantic art, goofy spies/commies, romantic boys trying to be men, cheer-section roommates, gross-out gags & dirty jokes, and the "grown-up" world of adults that seems campy. The movie's stereotyped, masculine, dumb-as-rocks models - that inadvertently become heroes, of course - are the last bastion of what every girl was shown a supermodel could be (minus anorexia & heroin use in this PG-13) ...before those somewhat unfair stereotypes were wiped out when real-world "models" finally found expression ad refuge on Instagram with the other millions (aka: unemployed narcissists with duck-lips).Quack! Rated 0.5/5 Stars • Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/15/23 Full Review Audience Member As far as to address the Critics Consensus, I didn't think it was a huge mess, I didn't think the plot or jokes were idiotic, and I didn't think the toilet humor was gratuitous, or more gross than funny. There are two scenes that could be considered "gross", but only because they take place in the bathroom. It wasn't too much that it was gross to me, though, and then I also found it them funny! But, this is a pretty good movie, at least I think! It's from the director of Mean Girls, and the Freaky Friday remake! I thought this was pretty well directed, and that he did the jokes well. I thought it was pretty funny too, with a few laugh out loud scenes. I thought Freddie Prinze Jr. gave one of his best performances! I'm not gonna going to say anything else, to keep this review short. But, I will say, that by the end, I was loving it, and seeing a huge amount of re-watch value! I'd recommend this to most anyone, but specifics could include fans of Mark Waters' work, or Freddie Prinze Jr. fans! I had a third/kinda kind of fourth specific, but it was a an unspecific one/ones, and just a joke! Rated 3.5/5 Stars • Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Head Over Heels

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Cast & Crew

Mark Waters Director Monica Potter Amanda Pierce Freddie Prinze Jr. Jim Winston Shalom Harlow Jade Ivana Milicevic Roxana Sarah Murdoch Candi
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Head Over Heels

Director MARK WATERS (left) and producer ROBERT SIMONDS. L to r: TOMIKO FRASER, IVANA MILICEVIC, MONICA POTTER, SHARH O'HARE, SHALOM HARLOW. TOMIKO FRASER, SHALOM HARLOW, IVANA MILICEVIC, CHINA CHOW, SARAH O'HARE, MONICA POTTER. clockwise from top l: IVANA MILICEVIC, SARAH O'HARE, SHALOM HARLOW, MONICA POTTER, FREDDIE PRINZE JR.,TOMIKO FRASIER. L to r: SHALOM HARLOW, TOMIKO FRASER, SARAH O'HARE, IVANA MILICEVIC. FREDDIE PRINZE JR. as Jim Winston. L to r: SARAH O'HARE, IVANA MILICEVIC, SHALOM HARLOW, TOMIKO FRASER. L to r: IVANA MILICEVIC, MONICA POTTER and TOMIKO FRASER. MONICA POTTER with FREDDIE PRINZE, JR. MONICA POTTER as Amanda Pierce. View more photos

Synopsis Although she has an excellent job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a fabulous apartment with model roommates, New Yorker Amanda Pierce (Monica Potter) remains unlucky in love and intent on finding the right guy. When she develops a crush on neighbor Jim Winston (Freddie Prinze Jr.), she begins to spy on him and witnesses his apparent involvement in a murder. Since things don't add up, she tries to figure out what really happened -- and if she still has a shot at dating the guy.

Director
Mark Waters

Producer
Robert Simonds

Screenwriter
John J. Strauss, Ed Decter, David Kidd, Ron Burch, Ron Burch, David Kidd

Distributor
Universal Pictures

Production Co
Universal Pictures, Robert Simonds Productions

Rating
PG-13 (Language|Crude Humor|Sexual Content)

Genre
Romance, Comedy

Original Language
English

Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 2, 2001, Wide

Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 30, 2016

Box Office (Gross USA)
$10.4M

Runtime
1h 26m

Sound Mix
Dolby SR, DTS, Dolby Stereo, Surround, SDDS, Dolby A, Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
Head Over Heels (2001) | Rotten Tomatoes (2025)
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