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Beloved

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Beloved (1998)

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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]

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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

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    1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating)
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    N/R

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

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
    03/24/02
    Boston Phoenix
    N/R

    Click to read the article

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

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Harvey S. Karten
    Harvey S. Karten
    Compuserve
    N/R

    Click to read the article

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

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Matt's Movie Reviews | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Matt Easterbrook
    Matt Easterbrook
    Matt's Movie Reviews
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Aisle Seat | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Mike McGranaghan
    Mike McGranaghan
    Aisle Seat
    N/R

    Click to read the article

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

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: New Republic | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Stanley Kauffmann
    Stanley Kauffmann
    New Republic
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Susan Granger
    Susan Granger
    rec.arts.movies.reviews
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Urban Cinefile Critics
    Urban Cinefile Critics
    Urban Cinefile
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Walter V. Addiego
    Walter V. Addiego
    San Francisco Examiner

    Oprah Winfrey's dream project is a total nightmare.

    Full Review Source: Juicy Cerebellum | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Alex Sandell
    Alex Sandell
    Juicy Cerebellum

    Everywhere you look in Beloved are signs of Demme's decay as a director -- the inattention to performances, the grindingly slow pacing, the sloppy, at times incoherent, story line and the straining grandiloquence of the tone.

    Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Charles Taylor
    Charles Taylor
    Salon.com

    Both Winfrey and Demme get a lot wrong.

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

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Christopher Null
    Christopher Null
    Filmcritic.com

    If Beloved, for all its individual moments of power and grace, does not ultimately add up to much, it's because Demme and the screenwriters can never find the means to get underneath the skin of the story's dread.

    Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    David Luty
    David Luty
    Film Journal International

    Much of the acting is solid, but earnest performances can't give the picture all the bite and excitement it sorely needs.

    Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    David Sterritt
    David Sterritt
    Christian Science Monitor

    ... a film whose greatest weakness is that it is too long.

    Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Dennis Schwartz
    Dennis Schwartz
    Ozus' World Movie Reviews

    Although it's extremely well-acted and has a very powerful message behind it, this supernatural, Civil War-era drama is also overwrought and overly long.

    Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Jeff Vice
    Jeff Vice
    Deseret News, Salt Lake City
     
     
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