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Snow Falling on Cedars
Metascore
44 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 31
  3. Negative: 8 out of 31
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  1. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Christopher Brandon
    95
    Scott Hicks adapts David Guterson's best-selling novel as if it was poetry.
    All this critic's reviews
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    Uusually satisfying in the way it unfolds.
  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    88
    The kind of richly layered film that Hollywood seldom attempts, much less brings off. But it's more than brought off here in grand, solid style and beautifully crafted detail.
  4. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    75
    Reflective, deliberate, building gradually to a climax that left me touched.
  5. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    70
    Flawed, but fascinating, this somber adaptation of David Guterson's award-winning novel is sometimes sluggish and difficult to follow, but it's also unexpectedly poetic.
  6. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    67
    Fails to completely engage the viewer at the basic level of story.
  7. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    67
    As good as it is in many ways, the film is not as emotionally gripping as it should be, and comes off as a rather predictable liberal statement.
  8. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Larry Terenzi
    62
    Hicks is far less interested in resolving dramatic conflicts than in framing shots.
  9. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    50
    Movies made from serious novels are often ridiculed as unworthy of their sources, but this one may be too worthy -- too reverent, too showy, too earnest.
  10. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    Too chilly and distanced to build the emotional impact it would like to have.
  11. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    50
    A prettily photographed yet morbidly gloomy movie.
  12. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    50
    Ultimately there's something too measured, too controlled in his film.
  13. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    As cosmetically sanitized revisions of history go: This is as good as it gets.
  14. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Staff [Not Credited]
    50
    Compelling almost in spite of itself, thanks to the impressionistic imagery of cinematographer Robert Richardson.
  15. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    50
    Exceedingly blurred rendering of a simply told, artful novel.
  16. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    50
    For all the beauty it struggles to bring forth, Snow Falling on Cedars is painfully prosaic.
  17. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    50
    Not a crowd-pleasing, or even audience-oriented, movie; it's a two-hour-plus mood piece.
  18. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    50
    Has to fight to hold our attention and it doesn't always succeed.
  19. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    50
    Essentially a liberal soap opera.
  20. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    40
    This badly muddled adaptation of a complex novel chases after Guterson's many skeins and themes with no unifying principle in mind.
  21. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Sean Means
    40
    You just watch one carefully constructed but emotionally vacant image piled up on another - sometimes with regard to an overall effect, but often just for the sake of style over substance.
  22. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    40
    Impeccably crafted but dramatically dull.
  23. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    40
    Never transports you to another place and time, as it intends to.
  24. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    The year's most beautiful movie -- and surely one of the dullest.
  25. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Patterson
    30
    The narrative chronology is so heavily hacked about, its tenses so addled and the material so thinly spread across so many characters, one can scarcely keep it straight in one's head without going cross-eyed.
  26. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Dennis Lim
    30
    Trying to act in this movie is like trying to stand upright in a blizzard.
  27. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    30
    Admirably high-minded and visually gorgeous but fatally anesthetized by its own grandiosity.
  28. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    30
    All shots and no scenes, which is nice for a picture book but deadly for drama.
  29. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    30
    Loaded with facile social themes, opaque characters, pointlessly intricate flashbacks, and inflated technique.
  30. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    25
    Looks exquisite, but don't bother digging deeper.
  31. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    25
    Ultimately groans under the weight of its own quiet gorgeousness.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 14 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. LunaM.
    4
    The scattered fragments of the story are overwhelmed by the film's weighty, somber, pretentious cinematography and score. Visually poetic and lovingly photographed. But one ponderously slow scene follows another. Snippets of same are then repeated through flashbacks. Over-use of crying babies to dramatize bad news. Plenty of passion and talent were behind the making of this movie, but for me it was too self-conscious, gloomy and (watch as the rain drips drips drips) SLOW.… Full Review »
  2. SusanF.
    10
    Mesmerizing film- beautifully done - provacative and above all heart wrenching movie.
See all user reviews »