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63
11th Hour, The
47
27 Dresses
29
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
39
Alvin and the Chipmunks
81
Bamako
84
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
47
Bella
68
Business of Being Born, The
69
Charlie Wilson's War
64
Cloverfield
30
Cover
68
Delirious
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
43
Final Season, The
41
First Sunday
51
Golden Compass, The
49
Good Night, The
65
Great Debaters, The
63
Hannah Takes the Stairs
52
Hollywood Dreams
7
Hottie and the Nottie, The
60
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
15
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
81
Juno
70
Lars and the Real Girl
47
Lions for Lambs
41
Mad Money
71
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
xx
Moondance Alexander
53
Music Within
77
Nanking
44
Nina's Heavenly Delights
24
One Missed Call
74
Orphanage, The
30
Over Her Dead Body
39
P.S. I Love You
37
P2
46
Reservation Road
55
Resurrecting the Champ
57
Romulus, My Father
85
Savages, The
78
Starting Out in the Evening
83
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
57
Teeth
92
There Will Be Blood
38
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
32
Untraceable
63
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
68
War Dance
71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
43
Youth Without Youth
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
92
There Will Be Blood
85
Savages, The
84
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
83
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
81
Juno
81
Bamako
78
Starting Out in the Evening
77
Nanking
74
Orphanage, The
71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
71
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
70
Lars and the Real Girl
69
Charlie Wilson's War
68
Business of Being Born, The
68
Delirious
68
War Dance
65
Great Debaters, The
64
Cloverfield
63
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
63
11th Hour, The
63
Hannah Takes the Stairs
60
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
57
Romulus, My Father
57
Teeth
55
Resurrecting the Champ
53
Music Within
52
Hollywood Dreams
51
Golden Compass, The
49
Good Night, The
47
Bella
47
Lions for Lambs
47
27 Dresses
46
Reservation Road
44
Nina's Heavenly Delights
43
Youth Without Youth
43
Final Season, The
41
Mad Money
41
First Sunday
39
Alvin and the Chipmunks
39
P.S. I Love You
38
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
37
P2
32
Untraceable
30
Over Her Dead Body
30
Cover
29
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
24
One Missed Call
15
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
7
Hottie and the Nottie, The
xx
Moondance Alexander
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Snow Falling on Cedars
Universal Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for disturbing images, sensuality and brief strong language
Starring
Ethan Hawke,
James Cromwell,
Richard Jenkins,
and
Sam Shepard
Set against the backdrop of the national crisis that erupted following Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor, this is an elegiac, multi-layered exploration of memory, love and reconciliation on an island in the Pacific Northwest. (Universal Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Scott Hicks
Ronald Bass
David Guterson (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Scott Hicks
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: May 30, 2000
Video: May 30, 2000
Theatrical: December 22, 1999
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
126 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

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...
95
TNT RoughCut
Christopher Brandon
Scott Hicks adapts David Guterson's best-selling novel as if it was poetry.
88
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
The kind of richly layered film that Hollywood seldom attempts, much less brings off. But it's more than brought off here in grand, solid style and beautifully crafted detail.

88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Uusually satisfying in the way it unfolds.

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Reflective, deliberate, building gradually to a climax that left me touched.

70
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Flawed, but fascinating, this somber adaptation of David Guterson's award-winning novel is sometimes sluggish and difficult to follow, but it's also unexpectedly poetic.

67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
As good as it is in many ways, the film is not as emotionally gripping as it should be, and comes off as a rather predictable liberal statement.

67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Fails to completely engage the viewer at the basic level of story.

62
Mr. Showbiz
Larry Terenzi
Hicks is far less interested in resolving dramatic conflicts than in framing shots.

50
San Francisco Examiner
Wesley Morris
As cosmetically sanitized revisions of history go: This is as good as it gets.

50
Time
Richard Schickel
Essentially a liberal soap opera.

50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Movies made from serious novels are often ridiculed as unworthy of their sources, but this one may be too worthy -- too reverent, too showy, too earnest.

50
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
For all the beauty it struggles to bring forth, Snow Falling on Cedars is painfully prosaic.

50
Film.com
Robert Horton
Not a crowd-pleasing, or even audience-oriented, movie; it's a two-hour-plus mood piece.

50
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Has to fight to hold our attention and it doesn't always succeed.

50
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
A prettily photographed yet morbidly gloomy movie.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Edward Guthmann
Ultimately there's something too measured, too controlled in his film.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Too chilly and distanced to build the emotional impact it would like to have.

50
USA Today
Staff [Not Credited]
Compelling almost in spite of itself, thanks to the impressionistic imagery of cinematographer Robert Richardson.

50
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Exceedingly blurred rendering of a simply told, artful novel.

40
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Impeccably crafted but dramatically dull.

40
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Never transports you to another place and time, as it intends to.

40
Dallas Observer
Bill Gallo
This badly muddled adaptation of a complex novel chases after Guterson's many skeins and themes with no unifying principle in mind.

40
Film.com
Sean Means
You just watch one carefully constructed but emotionally vacant image piled up on another - sometimes with regard to an overall effect, but often just for the sake of style over substance.

38
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
The year's most beautiful movie -- and surely one of the dullest.

30
LA Weekly
John Patterson
The narrative chronology is so heavily hacked about, its tenses so addled and the material so thinly spread across so many characters, one can scarcely keep it straight in one's head without going cross-eyed.

30
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Admirably high-minded and visually gorgeous but fatally anesthetized by its own grandiosity.

30
Village Voice
Dennis Lim
Trying to act in this movie is like trying to stand upright in a blizzard.

30
Newsweek
David Ansen
All shots and no scenes, which is nice for a picture book but deadly for drama.

30
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Loaded with facile social themes, opaque characters, pointlessly intricate flashbacks, and inflated technique.

25
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Looks exquisite, but don't bother digging deeper.

25
Baltimore Sun
Ann Hornaday
Ultimately groans under the weight of its own quiet gorgeousness.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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