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Onegin
Samuel Goldwyn Films


8.5

based on 21 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 4 votes
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Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for brief violence and a sexual image

Starring Ralph Fiennes, Liv Tyler, Toby Stephens, Lena Headey, and Martin Donovan

Director Martha Fiennes explores the theme of unrequited love in this drama based on Aleksandr Pushkin's verse novel. Eugene Onegin (Ralph Fiennes), an 1820s Saint Petersberg aristocrat is introduced to the young and passionate Tatiana (Tyler) who falls in love with him and is intially refused.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Peter Ettedgui Michael Ignattief Alexander Pushkin (poem)
DIRECTED BY:	Martha Fiennes
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 11, 2000 Video: July 11, 2000 Theatrical: December 17, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	106 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK

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...

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A pleasure in all ways.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Few things are more enthralling than unrequited love, as demonstrated by this drama.

Film.com Peter Brunette

A deliciously romantic story, in all senses of the word.

Time Richard Schickel

Handsome, well-acted, richly textured adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's novel.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A riveting, unsentimental tragedy of unrequited love.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

The pace slackens a little after the first hour, but the photography by Remi Adefarasin and music by Magnus Fiennes keep the emotion stoked.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Hot-blooded.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Fiennes does this sort of inner pain thing exceedingly well, Tyler is beguiling and believable, and there is an edge of wit and grace to the proceedings.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

(Fiennes's) Onegin is clueless to anything other than the sensual world, and is finally more repellent than sympathetic.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Tatyana, the embodiment of a heroine whose still waters run deep, requires more maturity than Tyler as yet possesses.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A handsome, somewhat draggy and abrupt film that's more memorable in snippets than as a whole.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Despite Fiennes' splendid moodiness and Tyler's radiant vulnerability, despite lovely settings... this movie is dull.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There is a cool, mannered elegance to the picture that I like, but it's dead at its center.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A confident and promising directorial debut, one that has the feel of an experienced director to it, from the hypnotic unfolding of scenes to the finely observed character details.

Film.com Robert Horton

(Tyler's) voice is still mall American, and Onegin's rejection of her is nowhere near as puzzling or as tragic as it's supposed to be.

Austin Chronicle Editor

A sumptuous yet unexceptional story.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Overall, this is the kind of thing that gives literary adaptations their bad name.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Makes you appreciate opera, or NoDoz.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Would have been a stronger movie if it didn't require a strong cup of coffee going in.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Feels too cramped, indoorsy and bloodless to catch romantic fire.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Unable to capture either its wit, psychological acuity, or formal rigor, the movie essentially reduces the schematic, seesaw narrative to doomy clichés.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Margarita B. gave it a 10:
Is very well adapted to Pushkin's work. The music is excellent and fills the expectator with the emotions and feelings expressed in this drama.

Herschel M. gave it a 7:
Haunting, beautifully filmed, and intriguing characters ... but not less engaging than it could have been. The detached feel and icy scenery is somehow fitting in this story of surpressed passion and male ineffectuality.

Sierra T. gave it an 8:
Intensely romantic, acute portrayal of the bittersweet aftertaste of unrequited love.

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Onegin Samuel Goldwyn Films

Onegin
Samuel Goldwyn Films