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75Nastassja Kinski, in one of her most affecting performances, does much to convey the turmoil going in her soul.
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75The heartfelt truthfulness of Gardos' tale, and the performances of all leads, particularly Johansson, make the film a powerful account of the universal search for identity and the meaning of "home."
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75Although there's a certain connect-the-dots quality to the storytelling, there's no denying the care and craftsmanship that Gardos has brought to her debut film.
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70Made with care and respect, American Rhapsody manages to skirt the edge of excessive sentiment without falling victim to it.
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67Has an unerring eye for the banal intricacies of 1950s pre-planned suburban neighborhoods, à la Levittown.
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60Its emotional sweep is ultimately undercut by murky characterizations and generic plotting.
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60Ms. Gardos is not a particularly flavorful filmmaker, but she is an honest one.
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60Distinguishes itself by its subtlety and good taste. Even if we catch a hint of gypsy music on the soundtrack -- or glimpse a disturbing American neighbor lady -- Gardos steadfastly guards us from caricature. She wants to keep it real.
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58The result is a heartfelt film brimming with ideas and passion but hampered by a literal approach that douses the emotional heat.
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50Rhapsody fails to completely hook you, perhaps because the events happen so quickly you barely have time to sort out the characters.
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50Heartfelt but often plodding and awkward, the movie feels like a somewhat subpar Sunday night TV movie.
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50It's in the teenage section where the film goes seriously wrong and veers from an absorbing family story.
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50They don't get more frustrating than American Rhapsody, a near-great film for about an hour that changes into a self-indulgent mess.
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50For a movie with such a vibrant real-life base, An American Rhapsody is surprisingly low-impact.
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50The glammed-up Kinski looks the same age throughout and only has three expressions: angry, wistful, and someone's-killed-my-dog.
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50Two-thirds of the way through, it falls apart into TV-movie-of-the-week land, even with the rhapsodic Nastassja Kinski in the lead.
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50Calculated yet undeniably skillful melodrama.
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50It's a case of the heart being in the right place, but the script getting in the way.
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50Gardos -- treats it competently, though without much freshness or imagination.
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40While Gardos knows what to ask -- and though Kinski and Johansson both easily command attention -- the filmmaker lacks the storytelling sophistication to answer with anything but prettily rendered cliches.
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40The movie is a little crude for the subtlety of the emotions it plays with.
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30Gardos, an experienced film editor, has little narrative sense, and decent performances (except from Kinski, who just worries and huffs around) are left out to dry.