Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors” Video: Review Revue
An elderly woman reflects on the decades-spanning relationship she had with her now-deceased husband in Justin Timberlake‘s epic, eight-minute “Mirrors” video, which the singer dedicated to his grandparents, William and Sadie Bomar. The clip was quite a treat for JT fans, as it arrived the same day his third solo LP The 20/20 Experience was released. And despite the fact that Timberlake himself doesn’t appear until nearly the six-minute point in the Floria Sigismondi-directed visual, the whole thing is inviting enough to warrant multiple viewings — if not several cries.
We also scoured the Internet to see what critics thought of the “Mirrors” video, and rounded up several of their thoughts below. (Hint: they loved it.) Check them out, then let us know if “Mirrors” was equally as bright and shiny for you.
:: The New York Daily News notes, “The 32-year-old singer hasn’t dug this deep in to his personal life through a music video since the ‘Cry Me River’ ballad, which alluded to his breakup at the time with ex Britney Spears.”
:: MTV Buzzworthy sobbed and added, “While ‘Suit & Tie’ was a Bond-smooth ode to Tom Ford and Alexander Wang, ‘Mirrors’ is far and away the most artistic video Justin’s ever done, packed with metaphor, meaning, and blink-and-you-miss-it visuals. We’ll never say no to him in a ‘Suit & Tie,’ but we’re really warming up to highbrow Justin — so long as we have a tissue box handy.”
:: The Smoking Section raises a box of cigars to JT: “Another day, another reason to give Justin Timberlake your complete and undivided attention.”
:: Yahoo also can’t help gushing: “Justin himself doesn’t even appear in the video until the 5:45 mark, when the song segues into its coda, but that’s just fine — Bill and Sadie Bomar are the real stars of ‘Mirrors.’ We have a feeling Justin will be paying tribute to his grandparents again at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, when he thanks them in his acceptance speeches — because this stunning mini-movie is sure to win a few Moonmen.”
:: Add Stereogum to the list of those on board with the video: “The clip tells the story of a couple from different points in their lives, and even if the chronological math doesn’t actually work out, I love the idea that JT’s grandparents were rockabilly kids. The best part of the video is the last few minutes, where Timberlake and some models dance in a hall of mirrors.”
:: Chart Rigger is equally moved: “Justin Timberlake’s video for ‘Mirrors,’ the year’s best pop song so far, does what few music videos do these days: it actually moves us to feel real emotions.”
:: And, we saved the always-classy Prophet Blog for last: “Those smooth moves were so sexy. They almost made ‘Mirrors’ as legendary as the ‘Suit & Tie’ video, in which Justin and Jay-Z played homosexual entertainers in the fifties who had to hide their gay interracial relationship from society so they wouldn’t be killed like Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain.”
