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Seraphim Falls

EMAILPRINTSamuel Goldwyn Films LLC

Seraphim Falls reviews
62
7.5 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 19 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  War  |  Western

Written by: Abby Everett Jaques
David Von Ancken

Directed by: David Von Ancken

Release Date:
Theatrical: January 26, 2007
DVD: May 15, 2007

Running Time: 115 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for violence and brief language

Starring Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Angie Harmon, and Anjelica Huston

An epic action thriller set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. (Icon Entertainment)

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...

88

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

You could say that Seraphim Falls, was no better than the typical Westerns of the 1950s and '60s--which I think underrates it. But those typical Westerns were pretty darn good, and so is Seraphim Falls.

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80

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

After decades of revisionist westerns, this drama by TV veteran David Von Ancken is impressive for its stubborn classicism.

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75

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

If Seraphim Falls' audience appreciates its good points and ignores an ending that tries too hard, they'll just be following a grand genre-buff tradition.

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75

Premiere Ethan Alter

Neeson and Brosnan, along with the beautiful location photography from DP John Toll, keeps you involved even when Von Ancken's heavy-handed direction threatens to bog the proceedings down.

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75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This is an entertaining Western with some earnest ideas about forgiveness, redemption and the loss of innocents.

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75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It fulfills a lot of the criteria for a successful oater: spectacular scenery, an evocative frontier atmosphere, an ensemble of enjoyably tight-lipped performances, and plenty of stylish violence.

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75

USA Today Claudia Puig

A psychological drama with an intriguing ambiguity that challenges the viewer's loyalties and preconceived notions. For the first half of the movie you find yourself on the side of a hunted man. Then as the story unfolds, his pursuer becomes the one you root for.

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75

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Seraphim Falls is essentially one long, bleak stalk-and-kill action thriller.

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70

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Given that the movie is one long chase--Neeson's motive withheld until the end, the monotony broken only by the slaying of one member of his posse after another--the film is surprisingly gripping.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Neeson and Brosnan are supremely well-matched foils, though I do wish that the filmmaker, David Von Ancken, had lent his sparsely mythic tale just a twinge of something...new.

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67

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

With Seraphim Falls, Brosnan shows himself, finally, to be an actor of real skill – rather than just a pretty face, a great head of hair, and a buttery British accent – capable not only of playing a real human being but one with a tortured soul and a dodgy past as well.

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63

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Television director David Von Ancken's metaphorical revenge Western wears its influences on its sleeve, but adds nothing to the genre that hasn't already been explored in the quietly demythologizing films of Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher, the baroque, operatic Italian Westerns of Sergio Leone and his less-familiar peers, and even in Sam Fuller's deranged, post-Civil War psychodrama "Run of the Arrow"(1956).

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60

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Brosnan and Neeson make fine adversaries mining the terse dialogue for veiled dramatic fervor.

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60

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

Seraphim Falls has decent pep in its step till the final 30 minutes, when it's finally revealed why Neeson's bounty hunter is after Brosnan's surly mountain man. The flashback finale and all that comes after (and keeps on comin') drags on so long even the leads look exhausted. Till then, it's yet another replay of "The Most Dangerous Game," and Brosnan and Neeson are game for it.

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58

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Seraphim isn't totally satisfying, even if you're prepared for an arty Western. It's pokey and odd in a distant, slightly self-conscious way.

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50

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

A beautifully shot (by Oscar-winning cinematographer John Toll) but dramatically empty pursuit picture set in the untamed West.

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50

Variety Todd McCarthy

Aside from spasms of brutal violence, however, there's nothing rousing or new here.

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50

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Before long, though, things take a turn from simplicity to sententiousness, then to surreal silliness, and finally to a mano-à-mano contest, on a parched desert floor, over which man gets the best close-ups.

50

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Archetypes and symbols solemnly parade through Seraphim Falls, a handsome, old-fashioned western of few words and heavy meanings that unfolds with the sanctimonious grandeur of a biblical allegory.

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50

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The biblically themed Seraphim Falls moseys along very slowly, climaxing with a lengthy series of flashbacks and an appearance by Anjelica Huston as a medicine woman who may or not be the devil.

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25

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

A Western short on dialogue and long on pomposity, is little more than an extended chase scene down a snow-filled mountaintop to a desert floor.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Denise S. gave it an8:
Gorgeous scenery. Great acting. I found some of it forced. The scenes with Anglia? Houston in the desert did not fit in at all. And noone with no clothes, no horse and no gun would throw his one means of protection and food on the desert floor (when Bronson threw his knife down and walked away). That aint reality!

Pat C. gave it a6:
Looks like a good western can still be made. No new ground broken here, as Clint Eastwood previously covered all the cliches replicated here, but Brosnan and Neeson's performances are compelling.

Kev gave it a3:
This movie really isn't very good. It starts off as a semi interesting chase movie and makes the viewer wonder about the back story. But then it explains the back story and it's not very interesting, and just when you think it's going to end, it doesn't... it keeps going for another half hour of pain. The final scene in the desert is one of the worst things I've ever watched in my life. It's supposed to be meaningful and deep but it ends up painful and kinda funny in the wrong way.

Jason E. gave it a6:
Though filled with appealingly random peripheral glimpses into post-Civil War settings and booming entrepreneurial opportunities, watching this tersely written and sparingly verbose film is a laborious process. Though the story's details are unspooled with precision, the refusal of the film to pass judgment on its protagonists makes the final reel increasingly silly and metaphorically sanctimonious. I appreciated the refreshing lack of irony and stubborn reliance on classical though stylish action. However, in order to induce emotional attachment the audience must buy into Pierce Brosnan as the ultimate survivor in a frontier environment. Pierce has always been a skilled actor at suggesting superficial feats of incredulous stunts in slick Hollywood fare. This film demands an actor who convinces with a moody gruff apathy. Pierce is visibly straining during the rigorous physical challenges. Liam fares better, but the film is hesitant to adorn its sympathies with him choosing loyalty to biblical questions of righteous vengeance.

Andrew K. gave it a6:
This was a very strange film. The first half of the movie gets you caught up in the chase, and then the second half takes a strange turn. Things get really surreal by the end, which was probably one of my favorite things about the movie. This isn't your typical film in that it doesn't really have a story. "It's just a bunch of stuff that happens." One particular moment, where Pierce Brosnan's characters hides himself inside of a dead horse, unbeknownst to us, and then leaps out at Liam Neeson when we're least expecting anything to happen. That one had me laughing very loudly in the theatre. I guess this works better as an "art film." The ending, with the strange native american guy in the desert (who for some reason, sort of resembles a leprechaun) and Anjelica Huston popping up out of nowhere to give the characters the implements to destroy each other, really seem like the director is trying too hard to be meaningful, so that it's really hard to figure out just what it is that he means. The most unsatisfying part of the film was the last few minutes. Very anti-climatic. It ended in a nice way, but I was hoping for a better payoff. There's probably a lot of better films to see right now. But if you're insterested, it'd still be better to wait until this one comes out on DVD.

Monica gave it a6:
Well, I loved the last third better than the first two so I guess with Jason's and my review, it scores a 9. By the way, it wasn't mysticism, it was imagery.

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