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Claim, The

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Western
Written by:
Frank Cottrell Boyce
Thomas Hardy (novel The Mayor of Casterbridge)
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 29, 2000
DVD: June 26, 2001
Running Time: 120 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / France / Canada
Summary
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)
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
LA Weekly F. X. Feeney
A superb film by any measure, as deep and harsh as the sin Dillon committed to become great.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
Stark, haunting, epic, and mournful, The Claim is a mountain of a film.
Slate David Edelstein
Gives off the same vapor of impending tragedy—of a fate neither just nor unjust but ineffably, wrenchingly right.
Read Full Review >Film.com Ernest Hardy
A sleeper that's well worth hunting down. Its rewards sneak up on you, but then linger long afterwards.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Beautifully acted and conceived -- even if the final vision is not always totally satisfying.
Read Full Review >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.
San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
It overcomes some patchiness to turn into a rich emotional experience, ranging in degree from fire to ice.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
A languorously muted, occasionally magnificent film.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
There's something almost too controlled, cerebral, and overdetermined about Winterbottom's Western notions.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
The film moves too slowly and dispassionately to resonate as it should.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
This strikingly beautiful anti-western is filled with arresting images.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Sadly the film is so elusive, so distant, that it never seems more than half-alive.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
Nicely acted, wonderfully scenic but emotionally vapid.
Read Full Review >Film.com Robert Horton
This director's (Winterbottom) reach is impressive, but this time it doesn't quite grasp.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
The film feels inauthentic, a cardboard version of other epics that's cast for distribution to various world markets.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Comes to the screen missing subtle cues and crucial connections.
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.
Village Voice Dennis Lim
A numb, oddly dispassionate trudge toward predestined doom, inevitable in all the wrong ways.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
DL gave it a10:
Amazing, amazing film. Great acting, cinematography, emotionally engrossing story and of course Milla Jovovich is smokin'.
Chance W. gave it a 10:
Superb cinematography. Excellent performances from Peter Mullan and Sarah Polley.
