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Crush
Sony Pictures Classics


9.2

based on 30 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 4 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for sexuality and language

Starring Andie MacDowell, Imelda Staunton, Anna Chancellor, Kenny Doughty, and Bill Paterson

A sharply observed ode to the triumphs and tragedies of women and the men that accessorize them. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	John McKay
DIRECTED BY:	John McKay
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 27, 2002 Video: August 27, 2002 Theatrical: April 3, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	112 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Germany / UK

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...

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

There aren't many movies that deal with middle-aged women, and this one manages to do so with a fair amount of wit and heart.

Boston Globe Loren King

MacDowell offers an engaging portrait of a complex woman who has survived life's slings and arrows. It makes Crush an affecting take on modern women.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Crush is an Aga romance crossed with modern retro-feminist soft porn, in which liberated women discuss lust as if it were a topic and not a fact.

Chicago Tribune Loren King

A surprising and delightful romantic take on modern women.

Time Richard Corliss

The film bubbles with acid wit, in the tradition of Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges, while simmering with the ache of lust pursued and love lost.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

What Crush lacks in substance and originality, it makes up for with sheer likability.

Variety Derek Elley

Some fine screen chemistry between its leads and a spikey, offhandedly comic script by young writer-director John McKay put spice into Crush.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's the chemistry between the women and the droll scene-stealing wit and wolfish pessimism of Anna Chancellor that makes this "Two Weddings and a Funeral" fun.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Despite some jaunty performances and its pretty Cotswolds locale, the film, in the end, is hardly a pleasure at all.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Andie MacDowell bursts out of her good-girl cocoon in Crush to become a bright, bad butterfly: drinking, smoking, flirting with Ecstasy, having moaning sex on a tombstone just minutes after the funeral of a friend.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

MacDowell, Staunton and Chancellor are terrific, tearing into their juicy roles and reveling in first-time feature writer-director Jim McKay's sharp-tongued dialogue.

USA Today Mike Clark

After "Chocolat" and this, how about a moratorium on candy-centered comedies?

New York Post Lou Lumenick

With heavy emphasis on cliché and stereotype, has at least four false endings -- and drags on for nearly two hours -- before it finally contrives to reunite its sitcomish pals for a last drink together.

Film Threat Tim Merrill

There are pleasures to be had early on in Crush, but they get fewer and farther between. Nice while it lasts, the glow wears off all too quickly.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The tragedy that separates the Good Crush from the Bad Crush is a cleaver that severs the film's relationship with reality.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

For women who smoke and drink like fiends, the trio of pre-owned babes in this weirdly rotten femme-porn romance have awfully good, unwrinkled complexions.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

In the future, as recorded in the bible of British cinema, it will be written that "Four Weddings and a Funeral" begat "The Full Monty" which begat "Billy Elliot" which begat way too many pale imitations struggling to peddle the same brand of sloppy sentimentality. Amen.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Crush is that strange mixed bag -- an otherwise wretched movie in which an actress gets to do some of her best work.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The script's foolish contrivances crush its content.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

The sudden, radical change of tone is something far beyond Mr. McKay's nascent abilities as a filmmaker, and Crush never really rights itself.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Crush is the kind of movie that gives friendship a bad name.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The kind of movie that gives "chick flicks" a bad reputation.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Begins as a captivating romantic comedy and then, at the very moment it's most involving, takes a wholly gratuitous and disastrous swerve and just keeps on going from bad to worse.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

Loquacious and dreary piece of business.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Never good, Crush takes a turn for the worse when it takes a turn for the serious. Its attempt to drop cartoon comedy for cartoon tragedy essentially thrusts the characters from Cathy into the panels of Mary Worth.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

What’s striking about John McKay's feature debut is how much contempt toward his female characters the writer-director manages to pack into 115 minutes.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Oddly off-balance, estrogen-powered dramedy.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's about women, but as written and directed by a man, it appears to make no emotional sense at all. It treats women like idiots.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Manipulative tragedy, muddled motivations, incongruous reconciliations, deranged cuteness, all of it directed with a tin ear and laden with a score that evokes the experience of a conditioned lab rat.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The most depressing movie I've seen all year; in fact, I'm hard-pressed to name a movie aimed specifically at women that has ever made me feel as insulted and disgusted.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tracy F. gave it a10:
This movie is much better than the official critics are stating. It's about the friendship of three women at an age when our society generally starts to ignore them! Strong performences of all three ladies, but especially Anna Chancellor!

This Is Gilbert Mulroneycakes Calling From London gave it a 7:
Not bad. But not particularly good either. A decent enough chick-flick (hate the term), but bereft of oomph, lacking just a little something to make it stand out. It certainly doesn't deserve such a low metascore, mainly because it doesn't have the cojones to be really bad; content to just pootle along for 112 minutes in its Joanna Trollope meets Helen Fielding sort of vein, and then stop. Engaging performances from Andrew McDowell, Steve Staunton and Duckface are what really make it worth watching in any way. One to rent, then (but not from Blockbuster). Keep an eye on the lad McKay, mind: he does show promise, if only he can give his scripts a kick start now and then.

Flo P. gave it a 10:
Not the best story but a very fine and competent cast! Plus points: The sparkling chemistry between the three women. A story about women pushing forty and more, which is rare enough in the filming business. Some really witty remarks and lines. Some realistic streaks in the romance (who hasn't experienced up and downs during a relationship as well as some doubts if it's really the right man?) Despite the tragedy: Life goes on -if you like it or not - and one has to deal with it one way or another. And if nothing else: It's sometimes disturbing but also a lot of fun. I enjoyed it very much!

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Crush Sony Pictures Classics

Crush
Sony Pictures Classics