RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Check out the new RT Community
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / Beloved
Beloved

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Visit Official Site External Icon
  • Bookmark and Share

Beloved (1998)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
77 %
Tomatometer

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted: 66

Fresh: 51

Rotten:15

Average Rating: 7/10

Consensus: A powerful, emotional and successful film adaptation of the original novel.

Runtime: 2 hrs 52 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: With the startling, engrossing world of Beloved, director Jonathan Demme returns to the big screen following his Academy Award-winning work on The Silence of the Lambs and the emotional power of... With the startling, engrossing world of Beloved, director Jonathan Demme returns to the big screen following his Academy Award-winning work on The Silence of the Lambs and the emotional power of Philadelphia to craft a story of singular emotional impact. Academy Award nominee Oprah Winfrey stars with Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise and Beah Richards in this compelling story adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. Beloved translates to the screen with its visceral daring intact, thoroughly immersing viewers in the haunting, haunted landscape of this story.

Oprah Winfrey, for whom Beloved is the ultimate labor of love, appears in her first starring feature film role since earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in The Color Purple, with a performance of undeniable fearlessness. Winfrey optioned the rights to Beloved upon its publication and nurtured the project for nearly a decade, personally shepherding it to its current incarnation as one of the most anticipated motion picture events of the year.

Winfrey stars as Sethe, a woman of elemental grace and unspoken mystery. A figure of fierce determination, Sethe is a runaway slave struggling to carve out her own simple existence with her children in rural Ohio, 1873. Preventing her from achieving that, however, is the painful legacy of her former life, and the desperate measures to which she is driven to keep herself and her family from returning to it.

Danny Glover stars as Paul D, an old friend who comes to visit Sethe and whose understanding is tested by her household's shattering secrets. Kimberly Elise portrays Sethe's daughter, Denver, an embattled young woman who must free herself from the crippling grasp that her mother's choices have on her. And Thandie Newton is Beloved. As Beloved grows to become part of Sethe's family, her devastating presence threatens to destroy the delicate balance of Sethe and Denver's existence. [More]

Starring: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise

Starring: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise, Beah Richards, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Albert Hall, Irma P. Hall

Director: Jonathan Demme

Director: Jonathan Demme
Screenwriter: Akosua Busia, Richard LaGravenese, Adam Brooks
Producer: Jonathan Demme, Oprah Winfrey, Gary Goetzman, Edward Saxon, Kate Forte
Composer: Rachel Portman

[See More Credits]

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

May 18, 1999

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • Beloved
  • Oprah Winfrey (THE COLOR PURPLE) and Danny Glover (LETHAL WEAPON IV, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS) play the unforgettable lead roles in a powerful, widely acclaimed cinematic triumph from Jonathan Demme -- the Academy Award(R)-winning director of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. On a difficult journey to find freedom, Sethe (Winfrey) is constantly confronted by the secrets that have haunted her for years. Then, an old friend from out of her past (Glover) unexpectedly reenters her life. With his help, Sethe may finally be able to rediscover who she is and regain her lost sense of hope. Also featuring outstanding performances from Thandie Newton (GRIDLOCK'D) and Lisa Gay Hamilton (TV's THE PRACTICE) -- you'll agree with critics everywhere who've hailed this landmark adaptation of Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel as one of the year's finest films!
  • Source: Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for Beloved

    • T-Meter Critics
    • Top Critics
    • RT Community
    • My Critics
    • My Friends
    • DVD
     
     
    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
    Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
    Arrange By: Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
     
     
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
    01/26/06
    Time Out
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
    04/09/05
    Robin Clifford
    Reeling Reviews

    Okay, great performances, nice to look at -- but what this movie is missing is something to hold it together in the middle.

    Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
    02/27/04
    Liz Braun
    Jam! Movies

    Filled with some of the most extraordinary images of recent years, Beloved was apparently too powerful for audiences to handle back in 1998.

    Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
    02/03/04
    Jeremiah Kipp
    Slant Magazine
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Film Blather | comment Comment
    05/22/03
    Eugene Novikov
    Film Blather

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
    05/20/03
    Jim Shelby
    Palo Alto Weekly

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Film Quips Online | comment Comment
    02/08/03
    John R. McEwen
    Film Quips Online

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Nick's Flick Picks | comment Comment
    01/10/03
    Nick Davis
    Nick's Flick Picks

    A movie that requires the viewer to meet it halfway. Those willing to make the effort will be rewarded with an exquisitely photographed and intricately layered drama.

    Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
    11/06/02
    Jeff Strickler
    Minneapolis Star Tribune
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    It is sure to be studied, debated and cherished decades from now when Americans look to film for insights on who we are and where we have been.

    Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer | comment Comment
    10/15/02
    Margaret A. McGurk
    Cincinnati Enquirer

    Demme masterfully exhibits both the harsh realities of the time with the unexplainable mystical world that settles in and around them like a fog, even if he has trouble making the two elements mesh.

    Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
    10/11/02
    Jeffrey M. Anderson
    Combustible Celluloid
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal | comment Comment
    09/10/02
    Kevin N. Laforest
    Montreal Film Journal

    Its spiritual messages, which are deep and true, redeem any structural flaws of this ambitious film.

    Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
    08/21/02
    Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
    Spirituality and Practice

    a demanding, unsettling picture full of savage violence and deep-seated misery. Even when Sethe finds comfort in the arms of old friend Paul D ...the sight of their broken, scarred bodies coming together is heartbreaking rather than erotic.

    Full Review Source: Entertainment Insiders | comment Comment
    06/21/02
    James Sanford
    Entertainment Insiders

    Something rare: a brave film about the emotional toll of slavery, the anguish of memory and the cruel divisions that still sear African American lives.

    Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
    06/18/02
    Edward Guthmann
    San Francisco Chronicle
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Mournful and moving, eerie and uncompromising.

    Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
    06/05/02
    L.J. Strom
    Boxoffice Magazine

    Demme's potent adaptation of Morrison's novel may be substantial, but it is also engrossing.

    Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
    04/12/02
    Liam Lacey
    Globe and Mail
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Both Winfrey and Demme get a lot wrong.

    Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
    03/05/02
    Charlotte O'Sullivan
    Sight and Sound

    You don't necessarily enjoy it, in a sense, you simply experience it.

    Full Review Source: Needcoffee.com | comment Comment
    11/08/01
    Widgett Walls
    Needcoffee.com

    A knot of fierce emotions that is left for the viewer to untangle. Make the effort.

    Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
    05/11/01
    Peter Travers
    Rolling Stone
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
     
     
    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
    Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
    See More Topics...

    Related Forums for Beloved

    Click here to be the first to post a message on this forum.

    See All

    More DVDs

    Close
    Top Rentals
    Tomatometer Percentage Movie
    79%
    79%
    Gran Torino
    30%
    30%
    12 Rounds
    23%
    23%
    Confessions of a Shopa…
    —
    The Code
    39%
    39%
    Inkheart

    More Rentals…

    New On DVD This Week
    Tomatometer Percentage Movie
    22%
    22%
    Push
    12%
    12%
    The Unborn

    More New Releases…

    RT On Current TV

    What’s Hot On RT

    Deconstructing Harry

    Deconstructing Harry

    Pt. 3: Cuaron's darker Prisoner of Azkaban

    Best Mockumentaries

    Best Mockumentaries

    From Borat to Spinal Tap, this one goes to 11

    Humpday Clip

    Humpday Clip

    An exclusive peek at the indie comedy!

    Half-Blood Prince

    Half-Blood Prince

    How good is the 6th Harry Potter?

    Other News

    Close
    • Top Stories
    • Popular
    • Interviews
     
     

    Comments

     
     
    Top Stories
    Headlines Comments
      
    • Weekly Ketchup: T.J. Hooker Film in Development
    36
    • Warners Shortens Green Lantern Wishlist Source: Hollywood Reporter
    114
    • Harold Ramis Talks Ghostbusters 3 Source: MakingOf.com
    42
    • Spider-Man 4 Gets Its Third Writer Source: Latino Review
    60
    • Warners Wins Favorable Ruling in Superman Case Source: Variety
    20
    • Remo Williams Rides Again Source: Risky Biz
    10
    • Mortal Kombat 3 Filming in September? Source: Slashfilm
    82
    • MacGruber Gets a Director Source: Variety
    39
    • PG-13 Turns 25 Source: VideoETA
    8
    • Weekly Ketchup: Universal Takes on Asteroids
    92
    Popular
    Headlines Comments
      
    • Deconstructing Harry, Day 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    68
    • Deconstructing Harry, Day 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    67
    • Box Office Guru Wrapup: Transformers and Ice Age Tie for Top Spot
    59
    • Deconstructing Harry, Day 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    53
    • Total Recall: Mock Docs That Rock
    44
    • Critics Consensus: Bruno is Certified Fresh
    43
    • Five Favorite Films with Kathryn Bigelow
    39
    • Tomatometer Watch: How Good is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?
    28
    • RT on DVD: Knowing, Push, The Unborn Unleashed
    26
    • Five Favourite Films with Jaime Winstone
    19
    Interviews
    Headlines Comments
      
    • RT Interview: Director Carlos Cuaron on Rudo and Cursi
    0
    • RT Interview: Tony Scott on The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
    10
    • Cannes 2009: RT Interview - Sally Hawkins on We Want Sex
    2
    • RT Interview: Tilda Swinton on Julia
    5
    • Hollywood Legend Debbie Reynolds Reflects On her Life in Showbiz
    10
    • Exclusive: McG Talks Terminator Salvation
    24
    • Georgia Groome - Fresh Talent on RT
    5
    • RT Interview: Reading The Reader with Stephen Daldry
    11
    • RT Interview: Oscar Nominee Melissa Leo
    7
    • Carey Mulligan - Fresh Talent on RT
    7
     
     

    Sponsored Links

    Around The Network

    • Beloved at Rotten Tomatoes

    Fresh Links

    Featured
    Point-Counterpoint: Bruno
    Point-Counterpoint: Bruno External Link

    MSN's David Fear and Frank Paiva go head to head discussing the pros and cons of Bruno star Sacha Baron Cohen.

    The New Cult Canon
    The New Cult Canon External Link

    The AV Club's Scott Tobias takes a second look at David Lynch's cult classic, Lost Highway.

    Tom Cruise's 10 Best Roles
    Tom Cruise's 10 Best Roles External Link

    TIME takes us on a 25-year long journey into the superstar's career, giving us a look at his 10 best roles.

    A Baywatch Comedy?
    A Baywatch Comedy? External Link

    BuzzSugar reports on Paramount's plans to rebirth the iconic TV show as a comedy film.

     
     
    About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
    IGN Logo

    IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
    TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
    AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


    By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
    Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
    IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
    Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.