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An American Affair (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:6
Rotten:29
Average Rating:3.8/10
Consensus: With a plot both undercooked and cliche riddled, An American Affair unsuccessfully mixes a coming-of-age story and a presidential conspiracy thriller.
Theatrical Release:Feb 27, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: Washington DC, 1963: the Cuban Missile Crisis is last year’s news, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s young administration is starting to hit its stride. Behind the scenes, however, winds... [More]
Starring: Gretchen Mol, James Rebhorn, Cameron Bright, Mark Pellegrino
Director: William Sten Olsson
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Reviews for An American Affair
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 1/5 |
so absurd and convoluted that even JFK's legacy can't subdue its preposterousness Full Review |
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An earnest, fictional coming-of-age story is squeezed from a bitter, true-life local tragedy. And it works. Full Review |
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2.5/4 |
Out of its mind at a deep, essential level, An American Affair plays its dubious scenario with a straight face that makes the silly thing quite watchable. Full Review |
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1.5/4 |
The title sums up the bland, unimaginative and cliche-laden thriller/coming-of-age tale. Full Review |
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2/10 |
Before An American Affair is over, you can be sure that Adam will learn a very familiar life lesson. Full Review |
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2.5/5 |
There are scenes that work here and there, but regrettably not nearly enough to hold the film together. In the end, this affair is definitely not one to remember. Full Review |
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Painfully contrived Full Review |
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Start to finish, [the film] makes absolutely no sense. Full Review |
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Turns out An American Affair needed more than a name change to save itself from embarrassment. Full Review |
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D+ |
Even the famous M Street stairs from "The Exorcist" are out of place in the climax of this lightweight movie. Full Review |
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2.5/5 |
The most compelling moment comes from archival footage. Full Review |
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It's all presented so earnestly... that you barely realize at the time how preposterous it all is. Intrigue! Cubans! The Bay of Pigs! JFK! It's the coming-of-age tale filtered through the mind of Oliver Stone, Full Review |
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This is not, by any reasonable definition of the term, a professional film, even though several experienced and established actors have been inveigled to inhabit it Full Review |
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1.5/4 |
It's a good rule of thumb that any film that grandly puts "American" in its title is going to try to make some statements way beyond its pay grade. Full Review |
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2/4 |
Even Oliver Stone would giggle. Full Review |
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Gretchen Mol, lounging semi-nude as she smokes near an open Georgetown window, would spark any young man's curiosity and recklessness. But the assassination story line is absurd. Full Review |
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1/5 |
An implausible drama about some Washington D.C. people plotting around the time of the assassination of JFK. Full Review |
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8.25/10 |
A captivating, witty and poignant drama. Gretchen Mol sizzles. Full Review |
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JFK meets Notes on a Scandal meets Rear Window? An American Affair has some promise and potential, but its main ideas remain messy and undeveloped. Full Review |
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The Cuban Missile Crisis is a year passed and the assassination is looming, and yet Adam's pubescent crises are given Wagnerian emphasis. Full Review |
CommentLatest News for An American Affair
March 01, 2009:
A dash of Ingmar Bergman and Oliver Stone in this Capitol Hill noir, as kinky DC sexual politics collide with flaky JFK conspiracy theories, and Bay of Pigs CIA boozer masterminds wonder if communists are having more fun. 
More...
February 26, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Jonas Brothers Fizzles
This week at the movies, we've got teenybop pop (Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience, starring Jonas Brothers) and a video game adaptation (Street Fighter: The Legend of... More...
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