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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Love and Death on Long Island
EMAILPRINTLions Gate Films Inc.

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Richard Kwietniowski
Gilbert Adair (novel)
Directed by: Richard Kwietniowski
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 6, 1998
DVD: July 22, 2003
Running Time: 94 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / Canada
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for brief strong language, thematic elements and some sexual content
Starring John Hurt, Jason Priestley, Fiona Loewi, Sheila Hancock, Harvey Atkin, Gawn Grainger, Elizabeth Quinn, and Maury Chaykin
A stuffy British novelist becomes infatuated with a cinematic teen idol and sets out to meet him.
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 Lisa Schwarzbaum
A highly original Death in Venice-scented comedy drama written and directed with flair by British feature novice Richard Kwietniowski.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Hurt gives an astonishingly sensitive and funny performance as the bedazzled intellectual, and first-time filmmaker Kwietniowski unfolds the story with an unfailing blend of humor and compassion.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Denby
Writer-director Richard Kwietniowski has never made a feature before, but this debut effort is a triumph, a buoyant and elegant achievement -- romantic and ruminative yet always precise, a comedy of longing propelled by a strong current of satirical observation.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
An unpredictable, often funny, always winning film, Love And Death On Long Island is filled with low-key humor and sharp observations about the state of art at the close of the millennium.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
A witty, canny meditation on the power of pop culture in general and the rationalizations of cinephilia and film criticism in particular.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Love and Death on Long Island is sharp, sophisticated and completely delicious, a purposeful comedy that focuses on the power of screen images to uproot lives and the poignancy of amour fou, totally mad love.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
These opening scenes of Love and Death on Long Island are funny and touching, and Hurt brings a dignity to Giles De'Ath that transcends any snickering amusement at his infatuation.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
John Hurt is simply wonderful -- acerbic, funny and heartbreaking.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
The first-time writer-director, Englishman Richard Kwietniowski, has adapted Gilbert Adair's novel with wit, economy and a delicate understanding that the funniest comedies are played with dead seriousness.
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
This is arguably Hurt's best role in years, and he bites into it with relish, managing to seem both manipulative and vulnerable, dour and droll at the same time.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The height of drollery, a cheeky ode to the liberating power of popular culture, and a fascinating look at an old dog learning some new tricks.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) John Haslett Cuff
It is a slight, charming, filmic oddity, well acted and intelligently written
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Despite the many laughs Love and Death offers, it never takes cheap shots. It has a vibrant, beating heart - and that makes the comedy all the more worthwhile.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser
The script, by director Richard Kwietnioski and adapted from the Gilbert Adair novel, is poignant and well constructed.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Directed with style and wit by London filmmaker Richard Kwietniowski, who makes his feature debut here, Love and Death is an off-kilter romantic comedy.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
First-time director Richard Kwietniowski has fun with the collision of high and low culture, and he does elegant work.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Daphne Merkin
Directed with an original touch by Richard Kwietniowski, the movie is less about the nature of homoerotic longing than about the closeted nature of love itself.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
With Love and Death on Long Island, writer-director Richard Kwietniowski makes a very pleasing feature debut.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The interactions between the raspy-voiced Hurt and various shallowly cheerful Americans are genuinely charming and dynamic.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jay H. gave it a4:
What a nasty unpleasant film. I am usually not this far off from the critics. I found it boring and useless. Go figure. John Hurt was good, but the film was so pretentious and uninvolving. Yuk.
Jared C. gave it a2:
Terribly corny and awfully precedented. Avoid at all costs.
