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Ulee's Gold
Orion Pictures Corporation

Ulee's Gold reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 77 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.3 out of 10
based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R

Starring Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson, Christine Dunford, Tom Wood, Jessica Biel, Vanessa Zima, Steven Flynn, and Dewey Weber

The story of Ulysses Jackson (Fonda), a solitary beekeeper working in the tupelo marshes of the Florida Panhandle and caring for his two grandchildren. The trio lives an ordered, if somewhat narrow life until a call from Jackson's son in jail changes everything. (Orion Pictures)


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Victor Nunez  
DIRECTED BY: Victor Nunez  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: May 1, 2001 
Video: September 4, 2001 
Theatrical: June 6, 1997 
RUNNING TIME: 111 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...

100
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Ulee's Gold is a story of redemption, and Nunez doesn't make redemption look any easier than it is.
Read Full Review
90
The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
Beautiful and heartfelt, an oasis of humanity in a season of furious hyperbole.
Read Full Review
90
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Ulee's Gold stands out for its sureness, its quiet emotional force and writer-director Victor Nunez's ability to find and nurture the mystery and power in the events of an ordinary life.
Read Full Review
90
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Though it occasionally wears its metaphors on its sleeve, Ulee's Gold should, if there's any justice, find the same thoughtful-drama-hungry audience that made "Sling Blade" a hit.
Read Full Review
90
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Nunez finds a striking lyricism in simple lives that inspires an uncommonly fine cast and ranks him as a world-class filmmaker.
Read Full Review
89
Austin Chronicle Russell Smith
Fonda brings all of his childhood frustration and angst to the screen in one of the year's most unexpectedly brilliant acting performances.
Read Full Review
88
ReelViews James Berardinelli
The highest compliment I can offer Ulee's Gold is that it plays more like real life than a movie.
Read Full Review
88
USA Today Mike Clark
An emotionally honest low-ebber that builds to a satisfying wrap-up.
Read Full Review
88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Nunez has a gift for finding the essence, the soul, of his actors.
Read Full Review
80
LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
Nunez is a master at rendering emotionally complex, ordinary folk into the kind of unassuming heroes that don't much appear in American films anymore.
Read Full Review
80
Washington Post Desson Thomson
The film becomes a modest delight.
Read Full Review
80
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Leisurely pacing of this kind is likely to register as a form of respect for the viewer's intelligence and observation.
Read Full Review
80
Newsweek David Ansen
Ulee's Gold possesses an attribute that's increasingly rare in American filmmaking, independent or Hollywood: call it soul.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
Nunez's style is quiet, simple and deliberate, but the film never drags.
Read Full Review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Peter Fonda's the bee's knees in the performance of his career.
Read Full Review
70
The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Still, flaws and all, we have to be grateful to Nunez for persisting in his independence.
Read Full Review
70
Slate David Edelstein
Nunez's movies go places, but with no acceleration.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Todd McCarthy
Nunez achieves a rare, and rarely earned, emotional depth that rewards the moderate demands he makes on contemporary viewers' short attention spans.
Read Full Review
70
Film.com Tom Keogh
A very pleasant experience in watching life unfold in its own direction and time.
60
New Times (L.A.) Michael Sragow
Nunez's direction is as self-consciously homey as a floral welcome mat.
Read Full Review
60
TV Guide Ken Fox
The power of an otherwise carefully crafted film is undone by risky and not altogether successful casting.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Worthy but dull.
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50
Time Richard Schickel
Nunez's film neither floats like a butterfly nor stings like a bee. It just drones on.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

frasier k. gave it a10:
Great movie with acting ove jessica beil.

Pat C. gave it an 8:
Authentic and appropriately crafted. Fonda's character seems dull witted as an actual person, but is not a dumbed down composite character. This film is worth the investment of time for the thoughtful movie goer, but it doesn't cater to the lowest common denominator.

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