Field of Dreams
Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 17
  3. Negative: 2 out of 17
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    This is the kind of movie Frank Capra might have directed, and James Stewart might have starred in - a movie about dreams.
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    100
    What it's really about is taking a second chance to make good on old regrets and dead hopes. Never mind the baseball, this is one for the heart, made beautifully.
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Caryn James
    90
    A work so smartly written, so beautifully filmed, so perfectly acted, that it does the almost impossible trick of turning sentimentality into true emotion.
  4. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    88
    Despite a few wrong turns early on, the movie gathers graceful momentum and heads straight to the warm heart of the book - that fond spot located just on the safe side of sentimentality, a feel- good place that doesn't leave any feel-stupid fallout.
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Dave Kehr
    75
    As shrewd and accomplished as the movie is, there's still something uncomfortably manipulative about it... It doesn't explore its primal theme as much as it exploits it, tapping into the automatic, nearly universal power of guilt and regret. [21 Apr 1989, Friday, p.A]
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  6. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    75
    Imagine: a pseudo-intellectual baseball fantasy loaded up, like a spitter, with seductive sentiment. You can distrust the mix, but still like the movie - and I do. [21 Apr 1989, Life, p.D1]
    All this critic's reviews
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    70
    But there's something missing, something tentative and uncertain. In order to pull off a magic trick, you often have to distract the audience with smooth patter, clever detail or indirection. And this movie tries to play it so pure and unabashed that we can see right up its sleeves. [21 Apr 1989, Calendar, p.6-1]
    All this critic's reviews
  8. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Staff (Non Credited)
    60
    Ultimately, the film relies too heavily on consensual acceptance of baseball iconography as some kind of symbolic shorthand for all kinds of American values. These days, most of us prefer the NBA.
  9. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Brad Laidman
    60
    If you're in the right mood this movie will bring a tear to your eye. If you're not you're probably already watching "Reservoir Dogs".
  10. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    60
    Everything from time travel to melodrama figures in this whimsically daft story, a romanticization that tries your patience even as your tear ducts well.
  11. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    The picture almost overwhelms you with sheer niceness. Unfortunately, this effect doesn't last; eventually the movie goes too far and overdoses on its own saccharine. [2 May 1989, Arts, p.11]
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  12. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Peter Stack
    50
    This movie reverie has an almost laughable '80s tone - a yuppified style and even language - that practically buries Costner. [21 Apr 1989, Daily Datebook, p.E1]
    All this critic's reviews
  13. Variety
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    50
    In spite of a script hobbled with cloying aphorisms and shameless sentimentality, Field of Dreams sustains a dreamy mood in which the idea of baseball is distilled to its purest essence.
  14. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    50
    The movie may steal a base here and there, but there are no homers.
  15. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    50
    Well-made treacle.
  16. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    30
    The tenuous conclusion is that all this metaphysical hugger-mugger was divinely ordered to reconcile Costner and his father. All those dead players were summoned from that Great Locker Room in the Sky in a painfully false move. [9 May 1989, p.26]
    All this critic's reviews
  17. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    12
    To be honest, I started hearing things, too. Just when Jones was delivering an inexcusably sappy speech about baseball being "a symbol of all that was once good in America," I heard the words "If he keeps talking, I'm walking."

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.2 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 33 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 15
  3. Negative: 1 out of 15
  1. JAM123
    8
    I thought it was a spectacular movie. It was really great and it really taught you the lesson of bringing back the past every once in awhile. It was a cool mixture of drama, mystery, and comedy. It's a classic Kevin Costner movie and will be in my favorites for a long time.… Full Review »
  2. FIlmsareawesome
    7
    It was a little too much fictional for me, the story wasn't all that good, it was normal, but it was entertaining, but even like that I was very disappointed and was expecting more. Though Kevin and Amy could have done a better job… Full Review »
  3. MovieLonely94
    8
    not the best family movie, but it has great entertainment and it teaches us about bringing back the past.

    Rating: 88%
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