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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Guinevere
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by: Audrey Wells
Directed by: Audrey Wells
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 24, 1999
DVD: March 14, 2000
Running Time: 104 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong language and sexuality
Starring Sarah Polley, Steven Rea, Jean Smart, and Gina Gershon
Harper Sloane (Polley), an affluent college graduate on her way to Harvard Law, meets a much older Bohemian photographer named Connie (Rea) at her sister's wedding. She moves in with Connie and mixes romance with her unorthodox education in the ways of photography.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
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...
San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Disarms with its sincerity and frankness.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
This patient, perceptive, nonjudgmental love story about age difference is the first to convincingly explain the temporal physics of May-December romances.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Wonderfully acted and slickly mad. Acutely written with an eye to the motivations and ambiguities involved on both sides in such a relationship.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Offers something magical in the haunting and hypnotic performance of Sarah Polley...(the film) cuts deep.
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
As talented as Polley proved herself in "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Go," this is her best work yet.
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
At the heart of the film, Polley - with her wary, unsure stares, her open smile and beguiling intelligence - is terrific.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Should make Polley, memorable in "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Go," into a bona-fide star.
TNT RoughCut Morgan Fouch
Polley's doe-eyed innocence is in overdrive.
Dallas Observer Andy Klein
Rea hits just the right balance of sympathy and self-interest.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Polley, the paraplegic incest victim in Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter," gives a mesmerizing central performance.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
The cumbersome wrap-up, which follows a four-year narrative gap, seems too fanciful and bogs down what has been a stronger second hour.
Chicago Tribune John Petrakis
A shy and depressed college graduate falls in love with a Bohemian artist, as in Woody Allen's "Manhattan."
Boston Globe Jay Carr
While the appeal of Guinevere is decidedly intermittent, it's there, and the acting is right on the money.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Deftly mixes rueful sentimentality and trenchant observations about the constantly shifting balance of power that drives relationships.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
We have a right to yawn, but we don't, and Sarah Polley is the reason.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
It doesn't take Rea long to decide that he's more interested in extending his record for Longest Acting Career Sustained on One Expression, and he's back to his baggy-eyed, hangdog look.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Bogs down during several fuzzily romantic interludes.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Amy Taubin
Except for Polley and Rea, the performances are heavy-handed.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
Partly because the seducer's technique is methodical--as a former conquest explains to the naive heroine--the movie's answers are too easy.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.4 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a 7:
Surely there are female mentors that could inspire unformed women to blossom, but a film requires both teacher and student to fall in love. "Guinevere" doesn't want to be that edgy, but the premise that a young girl finds love outside her family with an older man, recalls the made-for-TV-movie about child exploitation, "Fallen Angel", in which both films feature the taking of nude photographs. But Connie, a creep in form, seems right for Harper, a girl who seems too matured for boys her own age, so we reserve our judgments about Connie within the context of his serial dating, but not when he's in the moment, dating Harper, and seemingly loving Harper.
Yoon Min C. gave it a 7:
For a movie about a photographer it sure lacks focus. In terms of character motivations and emotional resolutions we are left feeling fuzzy. Polley plays a rich girl who finds solace and excitement in a relationship with a bohemian photographer who's equal parts fraud and the real thing, as both artist and lover. Most of the movie plays the bohemian scene too cute, and the final part of the movie where their relationship falls apart is poorly constructed and so dissipate into blah. However, the role of Polley's mother is exquisitely played with well-measured refinement and venom; her humiliation of Rea's character is devastatingly written and performed. And, the scene near the end when 'Guinevere' leaves Rea, dejected and alone, in the hotel room and runs into the vast cold night is beautifully heartwrenching. I'm not sure whether this is semi-autobiographical; it was written and directed by Audrey Wells. But, if so the films gains from a degree of genuine involvment and loses by lack of proper distance between artist and the subject that might have lent it a more rational perspective.
Blanco A. gave it a 6:
Sarah Polley & Stephen Rea are terrific, as usual. But the film's pacing, especially toward end, is awkward.
