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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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    Reviews
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    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 26 2006 03:16 AM

    Time Out

    N/R

    Robin Clifford

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Apr., 09 2005 03:50 AM

    Reeling Reviews

    splat
    3/5

    Liz Braun

    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: | comment Comment | Feb., 27 2004 03:37 PM

    Jam! Movies

    tomato
    4/4

    Jeremiah Kipp

    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: | comment Comment | Feb., 03 2004 04:52 PM

    Slant Magazine

    N/R

    Eugene Novikov

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | May., 22 2003 05:18 PM

    Film Blather

    tomato
    3/4

    Jim Shelby

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | May., 20 2003 05:19 PM

    Palo Alto Weekly

    tomato
    4/5

    John R. McEwen

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 08 2003 08:35 AM

    Film Quips Online

    tomato
    B

    Nick Davis

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 10 2003 08:40 AM

    Nick's Flick Picks

    tomato
    4/5

    Jeff Strickler

    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: | comment Comment | Nov., 06 2002 03:20 PM

    Minneapolis Star Tribune

    tomato
    4/4

    Margaret A. McGurk

    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: | comment Comment | Oct., 15 2002 08:30 AM

    Cincinnati Enquirer

    tomato
    3.5/4

    Jeffrey M. Anderson

    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: | comment Comment | Oct., 11 2002 03:38 PM

    Combustible Celluloid

    N/R

    Kevin N. Laforest

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Sep., 10 2002 08:31 AM

    Montreal Film Journal

    tomato

    Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

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

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Aug., 21 2002 08:26 AM

    Spirituality and Practice

    tomato

    James Sanford

    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: | comment Comment | Jun., 21 2002 09:19 PM

    Entertainment Insiders

    tomato
    4/4

    Edward Guthmann

    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: | comment Comment | Jun., 18 2002 08:23 AM

    San Francisco Chronicle

    tomato
    4/5

    L.J. Strom

    Mournful and moving, eerie and uncompromising.

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 05 2002 08:23 AM

    Boxoffice Magazine

    tomato
    3.5/4

    Liam Lacey

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

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Apr., 12 2002 08:20 AM

    Globe and Mail

    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Mar., 24 2002 08:19 AM

    Boston Phoenix

    splat

    Charlotte O'Sullivan

    Both Winfrey and Demme get a lot wrong.

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Mar., 05 2002 08:19 AM

    Sight and Sound

    tomato
    4/5

    Widgett Walls

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

    Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Nov., 08 2001 11:36 PM

    Needcoffee.com

     
     
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