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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
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48
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56
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82
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Beaches of Agnes, The
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Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
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Brothers Bloom, The
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Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
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Easy Virtue
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End of the Line, The
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Examined Life
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Girl from Monaco, The
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89
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Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
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Rudo y Cursi
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Seraphine
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Sex Positive
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Shall We Kiss?
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Sin Nombre
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Song of Sparrows, The
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U2 3D
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Under Our Skin
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Unmistaken Child
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Valentino: The Last Emperor
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What Goes Up
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Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Claim, The
MGM / UA
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for sexuality, and some language and violence
Starring
Peter Mullan,
Sarah Polley,
Wes Bentley,
Milla Jovovich,
and
Nastassja Kinski
A raw, romantic tale of stark beauty and primal authenticity about how dreams collided with greed in the making of California. (MGM)
| GENRE(S): |
Western
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Frank Cottrell Boyce
Thomas Hardy (novel The Mayor of Casterbridge)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Michael Winterbottom
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: June 26, 2001
Video: June 26, 2001
Theatrical: December 29, 2000
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
120 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK / France / Canada |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
LA Weekly
F. X. Feeney
A superb film by any measure, as deep and harsh as the sin Dillon committed to become great.

90
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
One of those rare literary adaptations that finds its fidelity in freedom, that stands as both a fitting version of its source material and as its own creation.

89
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
The characters in The Claim suffer under the weight of very big things -- betrayal, abandonment, disease, death -- but they do so quietly, stoically, until, by God, they just can't take it anymore.

88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Parsimonious with its plot, which is revealed on a need-to-know basis. At first, we're not even sure who is who; dialogue is half-heard, references are unclear, the townspeople know things we discover only gradually.

88
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
Stark, haunting, epic, and mournful, The Claim is a mountain of a film.
80
Slate
David Edelstein
Gives off the same vapor of impending tragedy—of a fate neither just nor unjust but ineffably, wrenchingly right.

80
Film.com
Ernest Hardy
A sleeper that's well worth hunting down. Its rewards sneak up on you, but then linger long afterwards.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
Beautifully acted and conceived -- even if the final vision is not always totally satisfying.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
I liked The Claim -- as much for its stark visual beauty and impassioned performances as its intelligent script and willingness to probe the tragic side of life.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Bob Graham
It overcomes some patchiness to turn into a rich emotional experience, ranging in degree from fire to ice.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Desmond Ryan
Winterbottom also has the insight to share the novelist's suggestion that landscape can reflect and, to a degree, even shape character.
75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Its sprawling canvas is mere backdrop for the most intimate of character studies -- a portrait of a man who chose material wealth and found emotional ruin.

70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
A languorously muted, occasionally magnificent film.

70
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Draws an electric performance from Peter Mullan.

67
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
There's something almost too controlled, cerebral, and overdetermined about Winterbottom's Western notions.

50
Portland Oregonian
Kim Morgan
The film moves too slowly and dispassionately to resonate as it should.

50
TV Guide
Ken Fox
This strikingly beautiful anti-western is filled with arresting images.

50
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Aside from an uninspired script by Frank Cotrell Boyce, is that none of the assembled actors really has enough star presence to compete with the sheer spectacle.
50
Mr. Showbiz
Kevin Maynard
Despite the film's impressively epic look and an interesting cast of young and old actors, it ringingly sounds the same dour note over and over again.
50
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Sadly the film is so elusive, so distant, that it never seems more than half-alive.

50
USA Today
Staff [Not Credited]
The actors seem as frozen as the landscape in this unsuccessful attempt at a grand and profound Western about the California Gold Rush.
50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Seems more clever than heartfelt, and whether you enjoy it may depend on how much you like Robert Altman's eccentric western "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," which it uncannily resembles.

50
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
Nicely acted, wonderfully scenic but emotionally vapid.

50
Film.com
Robert Horton
This director's (Winterbottom) reach is impressive, but this time it doesn't quite grasp.

40
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
The film feels inauthentic, a cardboard version of other epics that's cast for distribution to various world markets.

40
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Comes to the screen missing subtle cues and crucial connections.
30
TNT RoughCut
Andy Klein
I can’t imagine why anyone would plunge ahead with this project -- an adaptation of a classic no one reads, about characters no one could care about, directed by a filmmaker of little talent and less success.
20
Village Voice
Dennis Lim
A numb, oddly dispassionate trudge toward predestined doom, inevitable in all the wrong ways.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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