Green Mile, The

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

So moving, so memorable, so magically produced, it's going to delight millions of movie fans and sweep the Oscars.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Above all a cracking good yarn that earns its laughter, its wonder and its tears.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A reminder of just how good Hollywood storytelling can be.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

As Darabont directs it, it tells a story with beginning, middle, end, vivid characters, humor, outrage and emotional release. Dickensian.

Film.com Sean Means

Darabont follows King's book fairly closely, allowing the audience to steep itself in the setting and characters slowly, like reading a good novel.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A touching (and at times horrific) -- albeit overlong -- Christ allegory, that scores not so much on the strength of its convictions as it does on the truly remarkable performances it elicits from the cast.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Has a simple but exceptionally powerful and uplifting emotional lure.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A richly textured thriller.

USA Today Mike Clark

Well acted by an ensemble that leans toward equality for all, Mile carries its long running time extremely well.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

An often pedestrian film, one that never inflates to the epic grandeur to which it aspires or transfers its own emotional trajectory off the screen and into the viewer.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Excessive, but I, like Mr. Jingles, can't resist the Christmas-season cheese.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

There's almost too much there, but the three-hour-plus film permits the kind of detailing that not only brings the storytelling to life, but sometimes persuades us we're breathing to its rhythms.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A very engrossing movie, the kind that gives shameless manipulation a good name.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

On many levels, it hits its marks -- but it still misses the impact of some shorter, less-ambitious movies that play with our emotions more deftly or deeply, walk their miles, deadly or not, with a lighter, faster, more confident tread.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

From its deceptively easygoing beginning to the heart-wrenching finale, The Green Mile keeps you wonderfully high above the cynical ground.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

A film with a counterproductive tendency to take its time...but unassumingly strong, moving performances and Darabont's durable storytelling make it a trip worth taking just the same.

Variety Todd McCarthy

An intermittently powerful and meticulously crafted drama that falls short of its full potential due to considerable over-length and some shopworn, simplistic notions at its center.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

This jailhouse jam is quite a haul.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Surely a life sentence goes by quicker.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Modest, on-the-money performances, which look effortless because they're so meticulously thought out, make the hours fly by.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

A loud and ghastly movie to sit through and not short on gratuitous hideousness, but Darabont has also done his best to baste it with humanity and sweetness.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Much of the three-hour movie takes place in the prison, but the resonant characterization, expansive plotting, and judicious use of exterior locations and flashbacks remove any sense of claustrophobia or sluggishness.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

But just watch Hanks, with the effortless grace of a Jimmy Stewart, turn the loony into something sweetly logical. Now that is magic.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

A fascinating tragedy, easy to underrate.

Film.com Robert Horton

I still feel pushed around by Darabont's mysticism, and his overbearing sense of grandness; a little bit of the Mile goes a long way.

Film.com John Hartl

While writer-director Frank Darabont often fails to make King's story plausible, that's no fault of the actors. The performances are the movie's strong suit.

Slate David Edelstein

Superficially respectful but ultimately cruel.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

A shameless "Shawshank" redux.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Three hours of overstatement and schmaltz.

Time Richard Corliss

At the core, though, one finds a slacky, sappy film. The human mystery that breathed so easily in "Shawshank" is often forced here.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Its view of spiritual healing is closer to Spielberg fantasy than religious insight. Still, its good acting and good intentions will be enough to please many viewers.

Film.com Tom Keogh

Simply a case of severe overreaching and the illusion that an overstuffed movie is an epic movie.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Irritatingly repetitious and piled high with long-foreseen conclusions.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Moves with the suffocating deliberateness of a river of molasses.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

With a grating combination of naivete and arrogance, The Green Mile consistently overplays its melodramatic material, including a portrait of a black man that is as breathtakingly offensive as it is earnest.

Newsweek David Ansen

A lumbering, self-important three-hour melodrama that defies credibility at every turn.