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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 date)
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    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
    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
    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
    Jeremiah Kipp
    Slant Magazine
    N/R

    Click to read the article

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

    Click to read the article

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

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Film Quips Online | comment Comment
    02/08/03
    John R. McEwen
    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 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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    Liam Lacey
    Globe and Mail
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
    03/24/02
    Boston Phoenix
    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
    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
    Widgett Walls
    Needcoffee.com
     
     
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