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The Stone Angel (2007)

tomatometer

41

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 22
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 13

Despite fine performances from Ellen Burstyn and newcomer Christine Horne, The Stone Angel fails to escape formulaic melodrama territory.

50

Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 4

Despite fine performances from Ellen Burstyn and newcomer Christine Horne, The Stone Angel fails to escape formulaic melodrama territory.

audience

58

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 2,881

My Rating

Movie Info

Director Kari Skogland takes the reins for a Buffalo Gals Pictures production starring Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn as author Margaret Laurence's much-lauded heroine Hagar Shipley. Hagar may by 90, but she not ready to lie down and die just yet. Her decisions stem straight from her heart, and that often alienates her family and friends. When Hagar's son, Marvin (Dylan Baker), takes his mother to look at a nursing home, she takes it as her cue to leave her family behind and set out on one

R, 1 hr. 55 min.

Drama

Margaret Laurence, Kari Skogland

Oct 21, 2008

$31.9k

Vivendi Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (22) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (14) | DVD (2)

A tastefully reverent, fundamentally sincere treatment of Margaret Laurence's 1964 Manitoba-based novel, a staple for Canada's 12th graders.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Despite a terrific lead performance by Ellen Burstyn, Kari Skogland's epic The Stone Angel is a lesson in the perils of trying to cram a hefty Canadian novel that spans decades into a movie running just under two hours.

July 11, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Post | Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Writer-director Kari Skogland adapts a beloved Canadian novel gracefully and with plenty of spunk, the same way its main character moves through the world from cradle to grave.

July 11, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comment
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Although talented newcomer Christine Horne is ideal as the younger Hagar, letting Burstyn play the character at around 50, despite best-effort lighting, was not the wisest choice.

July 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A film of tightly assembled bits and pieces that don't fit comfortably together despite clever dashes of magical realism connecting past and present.

July 11, 2008 Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Ellen Burstyn deserves another Oscar nomination for this compelling drama.

July 8, 2008 Comment
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Too much story, too little time

July 23, 2009 Full Review Source: JWR | Comment

A perfectly respectable, solidly-made film which, beyond the expert performance by the always reliable Ellen Burstyn, has unfortunately little to recommend it.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Screen International | Comment
Screen International

Left me feeling respectfully indifferent, as if I'd been served a nutritious meal that was only fleetingly satisfying.

July 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Times | Comment
Seattle Times

The only way to enjoy Kari Skogland's epic portrait of a miserable 90-year- woman named Hagar (Ellen Burstyn) is to reframe it as Scary Movie for weepies.

July 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment
Boxoffice Magazine

Far less would have been much more, though the geriatric protagonist's salty sexual wit and impulse to share a joint with a passing stranger, spice up the often dreary chronological procession of family episodes.

July 12, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

Old lady on the road takes a memory trip, giving Burstyn a chance to shine.

July 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | Comment
Los Angeles Daily News

It's not a great movie, but Burstyn fans shouldn't miss her subtle performance.

July 11, 2008 Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | Comment
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Overacted, underwritten, and with flashback cues so lazy the characters may as well just say, "I remember when...," the film feels like The Notebook II.

July 11, 2008 Full Review Source: Let's Not Listen | Comment
Let's Not Listen

Events pass by in a muddled rush as the intimate character study of the page gives way to a hollowed-out on screen portrait.

July 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Metromix.com | Comment
Metromix.com

A stubbornly affecting drama that's strongest in its quieter moments.

July 10, 2008 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | Comment
L.A. Weekly

Burstyn can do maternal strength and strife in her sleep, but Kari Skogland's hardscrabble weepie is still indistinguishable from any number of similar memory-lane melodramas.

July 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out New York | Comment
Time Out New York

...there's certainly no overlooking the palpable emotional punch of the movie's final scenes.

May 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Stone Angel

CAST: Ellen Burstyn, Christine Horne, Cole Hauser, Dylan Baker, Ellen Page, Kevin Zegers DIRECTED BY: Kari Skogland SUMMARY: Rather than succumbing to life in a nursing home, feisty Hagar Shipley (Ellen Burstyn) goes on the run. As she struggles to keep her mind clear, Hagar relives passionate moments from early in

May 30, 2010
LWOODS04
♥˩ƳИИ ƜѲѲƉƧ♥

Super Reviewer

In "The Stone Angel," Hagar(Ellen Burstyn) is being pressured by her son Marvin(Dylan Baker) and daughter-in-law Doris(Sheila McCarthy) to move into a nursing home, to which she is fiercely resisting. At the same time, she senses the futility of her fight as she feels her body and mind beginning to betray her. So,

July 31, 2009
Harlequin68
Walter M.

Super Reviewer

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