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Gingerbread Man, The
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 18 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 1 votes
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
John Grisham (story)
Robert Altman
Directed by: Robert Altman
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 23, 1998
DVD: September 29, 1998
Running Time: 114 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for some sexuality, violence and language
Starring Kenneth Branagh, Embeth Davidtz, Robert Downey Jr., Daryl Hannah, Tom Berenger, Famke Janssen, Mae Whitman, and Robert Duvall
He knew the law, but he forgot the rules: Never get involved with a client. And never put your family in danger. Step into the courtly world of Savannah's top-tier law firms. Meet one of the brightest young stars of the bar, Rick Magruder (Branagh). And witness how his obsession with a beautiful, mysterious client (Davidtz), stalked by her deranged father, plunges him into a world of terrifying intrigue and deadly deceit. (Universal)
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
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...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Branagh, chewing on a plummy Georgia accent, makes the divorced, boozing, and womanizing Magruder a smug yet touchingly vulnerable legal player.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
With unexpected success, Robert Altman plays a John Grisham mystery in a seductive new key.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
A fascinatingly strange and chaotic ballet set to familiar noir motifs.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The most stylish and original John Grisham story on film.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's all atmospheric, quirky and entertaining: the kind of neo-noir in which old-fashioned characters have updated problems.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
There's great pleasure in watching a movie in which the director has thought out everything beforehand.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The result is an entertaining and sporadically engrossing two hours.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
Branagh is appealing here in the way we remember from movie heroes of the '30s: cynical, wisecracking and wised-up.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
Best of all, Robert Downey Jr., as Rick's seedy private eye provides a little comic relief at his own expense.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
One of those movies that's great fun to watch, even if it decomposes more totally in your mind with each step out of the auditorium.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
The trouble is that the picture is far from over when suddenly we find ourselves watching another movie -- a punishing, overly complex melodrama in which the Gingerbread Man receives his comeuppance.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
And, in a pointless riffing on the title, there are ginger kitties galore -- this flick has enough cats to launch a Broadway musical.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The acting is also solid, starting with Branagh's believable Georgia accent.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
There is a trumped-up quality to the action climaxes that is disappointingly perfunctory, and the story's final revelation is simultaneously far-fetched and unsurprising.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Between Magruder's oily schmoozing and the camera-ready combo of Spanish moss and constant rain, he and cinematographer Changwei Gu whip up some amazing atmosphere.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Joshua Klein
All accusatory fingers should be pointed at director Robert Altman, who further drains his reputation surplus with this unoriginal and uninteresting piece of exploitation.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The lesson of this barely stylish crime thriller is that a dull story is not improved by withholding information about characters' motives from the audience as long as possible.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Built on one of those particularly ludicrous plots in which, just before the end, we are meant to believe that a long succession of coincidences was really a diabolical scheme. [23 Feb 1998, p. 24]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
The Lives of Gilbert Mulroneycakes gave it a7:
Robert Altman? Robert ALTMAN? Doing John Grisham? File alongside "Johnen Vasquez creating a series for Nickelodeon" under Things That Are Impossible. Good film, this, if completely disposable. The plot's built on cloud, candyfloss and air, but it's engaging while you're there. The committed performances of Branagh, Davidtz and co help, as does Altman's predispostition for stories with lots of people doing different things at once. Worth a look.
