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Sweet November
Warner Bros.

Sweet November reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 28 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.7 out of 10
based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 43 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sexual content and language

Starring Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron, Jason Isaacs, Greg Germann, Lauren Graham, and Michael Rosenbaum

Nelson (Reeves) and Sara (Theron) have nothing in common except an hour spent in DMV hell. Intrigued by each other, but not quite ready to commit, they settle on a rather unconventional courtship: a one-month trial, after which they'll go their separate ways. No expectations. No pressure. No strings attached. What neither of them counts on is falling in love. (Warner Brothers)


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Kurt Voelker (also story)
Paul Yurick (story)
Herman Raucher (1968 screenplay)
 
DIRECTED BY: Pat O'Connor  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: July 24, 2001 
Video: July 24, 2001 
Theatrical: February 16, 2001 
RUNNING TIME: 120 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

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...

75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Neither a masterpiece nor a remake of one, but its wistfulness is infectious, and its melancholy mood lingers for days.
Read Full Review
63
Boston Globe Jay Carr
It's a small film, and a far from perfect one, but it allows her (Theron) to extend her range as no previous role has done.
63
Chicago Tribune Loren King
Nice to look at but too calculated and clichéd to resonate beyond its surface slickness.
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Anyone in the market for a bittersweet romantic comedy could do worse.
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50
Slate David Edelstein
He's (Reeves) not as good as he was playing a menacing Georgia wife-beater in The Gift, but he's an awfully convincing jerk.
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50
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
If the movie works on its own insipid level, it's because of high-gear star power -- 50 times the captivator Dennis ever was, Theron is terrific at creating adorable intimacy with little help from the script or director and exudes more guileless élan than any of the film's many puppies.
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50
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Does neither of its leads any favors. But they fill their roles admirably, and then some. Time and again, in a movie that repeatedly threatens mawkishness, you can sense them gently steering away just in the nick of time.
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50
New York Post Lou Lumenick
The sort of movie that seems to exist for no good reason except to keep the studio's pipeline filled with filmed product.
50
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The sweetest thing about Sweet November (a remake of the 1968 movie) is the on-screen magic between Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves. But that's pretty much where the magic ends.
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42
Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
It's classic movie manipulation gone amok.
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40
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Does neither of its leads any favors. But they fill their roles admirably, and then some. Time and again, in a movie that repeatedly threatens mawkishness, you can sense them gently steering away just in the nick of time.
Read Full Review
40
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
It's all corny and contrived and usually sensitive. The filmmakers even dare to show the effects of illness--a subject frequently glamorized to the point of being insulting--in a love scene of rare honesty.
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40
Variety Todd McCarthy
A contrived but entirely workable premise is given a well-tooled treatment in Sweet November, a femme-slanted doomed romance with a heavily calculated feel to it.
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38
USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
November is when we eat turkey, and Sweet November is pretty much a fat, juicy gobbler passed off as Valentine's Day date bait.
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38
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
If Sweet November were a puppy, it would have rabies.
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30
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
This is one of those movies in which there are only two types of people: officious yuppie pricks, and the beautiful folks who stop and smell the daisies. What keeps it (barely) from being completely intolerable is Keanu Reeves' hilariously awful lead performance.
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30
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
This whimsical weeper gets off to an awkward start and never finds its footing.
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30
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A film that means to be seductive but merely progresses from the contrived to the manipulative.
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30
Film.com Robert Horton
Charlize Theron has charm and skill, but no actress could survive this role, which has the gravity and verisimilitude of a sketch from a late-sixties Nancy Sinatra TV special.
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25
Miami Herald Curtis Morgan
The enigma of Reeves, sort of a human black hole on screen, works well in "The Matrix" but it drains the life from weepy romance.
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25
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Passes off pathological behavior as romantic bliss. It's about two sick and twisted people playing mind games and calling it love.
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25
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
A hellacious stew of romance and tragedy that gives the words "screwball" and "pathos" a bad name.
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25
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A very low grade romantic drama indeed, a love story with all the life and death intensity of a heat rash.
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20
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Get out your handkerchiefs. No, scratch that -- get out a pair of windshield wipers and staple them to your brow. Perhaps they'll obscure the screen.
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20
LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
This feeble remake offers little more than two pretty and willing leads who nonetheless can't hide their embarrassment over being set up as distractions to hide the film's thorough lack of coherence and appeal.
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20
The New York Times Dana Stevens
The film's last half-hour -- or do I mean its final two weeks? -- is meant to keep the audience sniffling and sobbing uncontrollably, but the only thing likely to elicit tears is the sight of Mr. Reeves dressed in a white dinner jacket crooning "Time After Time."
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20
Washington Post Desson Thomson
A front-end collision of a romance.
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20
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Beware all male viewers who enter here, you are in chick-movie hell.
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20
Dallas Observer Staff (Not credited)
It could be said that Reeves is one of the great manifestations of the mysteriousness of stardom. He gives the worst performance in Sweet November, and he's the best thing about it.
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10
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Shamelessly manipulative in a crude, bullying way.
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10
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Sara is supposed to be an adorable screwball with a fatal disease. Ms. Theron certainly gets the adorable right. With a comic style that's close to unerring, she not only deserves better than this junk but the very best.

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 43 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ivan N gave it a9:
After looking through "professional" critic reviews, I finally understood why I like Chicago Tribune so much over other periodicals. The thing is that those guys at CT do have hearts and do understand that there is more to life than what you expect in an average, credit-backed, bubble-life.

Manish S gave it a10:
This is one of the best movie ever written and acted. You may not like it but it is the best movie for any "Human" being. Before anything else we are human beings. so being Human is being"with " love. always giving always caring always forgiving, No demanding etc etc. rest is the movie. frankly speaking I did not like the last few minutes. I think director spoiled it due to time limitation....Love infact does not know time. etc etc.....anyway take care and love you.

Gloria C. gave it a5:
It was a very drama movie i love it alot.

Madison S. gave it a 10:
It's reality. It's not some fairy tale where everyone falls in love and lives happily ever after.

Leah W. gave it a 10:
One of the best films i have ever seen.. well romance film neway! extremely moving.. made me cry 10/10 without a doubt.

Buffy fan gave it a 10:
This is one of the best drama movies that I have ever seen. Keanua Reeves is magnificent in this movie I actually cried when I watched this it difently is a classic.

Niall M. gave it a 9:
I really enjoyed this film, it is one of the best iv seen in the past while. charlize and keanu did a great job, the chemistry between them i thought was electric. im not a person that would cry at a film but this film had me very close, it certainly caused a lump in my throat. up to the last quarter of this film had me feeling heart warmed and feeling that this is was happiness is (especially that scene which keanu realised this is all he ever wanted), and then the last quarter moved me tremendiously. good film.

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