Vancouver writer/director Julia Kwan's debut feature film may have won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance, but Canadian critics are giving Eve & the Fire Horse mixed reviews.

The story about a young Asian girl growing up in an immigrant family in the 1970s is filled with scenes "that play heartbreakingly true," says Chris Knight at the National Post. "It is sweet without being cloying, and humorous in a heartbreaking kind of way," writes The Toronto Sun's Liz Braun.

Mary Frances Hill at the Vancouver arts weekly Westender gives Kwan high points for production values, but says the story "revels in the characters' own naivete." Eve "becomes a snoozefest 20 minutes in," she says.

"By turns amusing and touching," says Brian D. Johnson at Maclean's, but it fails to live up to its potential because of a "delicate narrative that falters in the final stretch."

The coming-of-age tale set against B.C.'s Slocan Valley is winning over critics and audiences thanks to first-time filmmaker Aubrey Nealon's sharp script.

Nealon's dialogue is "sharply amusing without resorting to sitcom wisecracks" says Ken Eisner of the Georgia Straight. "Equally affecting is David Geddes's varied cinematography, which takes viewers deep into and high above the gorgeous Kootenays."

The Westender's Mary Frances Hill agrees, noting, "Nealon has a knack for intelligent dialogue and knows how to use his camera."

The script, writes Jason Anderson of Toronto's Eye Weekly, compensates for the film's "less sure-footed moments and overly contrived final act."

-Compiled by Sarah Marchildon