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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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    21 - 40 (sorted by date)
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    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
    Peter Travers
    Rolling Stone
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    A complex, difficult, unyielding vision of memory and personal experience.

    Full Review Source: Matinee Magazine | comment Comment
    04/19/01
    Chuck Rudolph
    Chuck Rudolph
    Matinee Magazine

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
    02/27/01
    James Kendrick
    James Kendrick
    Q Network Film Desk

    Once this film gets its bearings, the unsentimental fierceness of its vision brushes obstacles and quibbles from its path.

    Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
    02/14/01
    Kenneth Turan
    Kenneth Turan
    Los Angeles Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | comment Comment
    01/01/01
    Robert Roten
    Robert Roten
    Laramie Movie Scope

    This powerful journey into the lives of people struggling with the aftershock of slavery stands as another impressive drama from director Demme.

    Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    E! Online

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    01/01/00
    USA Today

    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

    cathartic and affirming

    Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Arthur Lazere
    Arthur Lazere
    culturevulture.net

    This is a good, if not great, film!

    comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Ben Williams
    Ben Williams
    Citysearch

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Bob Bloom
    Bob Bloom
    rec.arts.movies.reviews

    Like a great book, Beloved builds up, through accretion of detail, so much information and revelation that we begin to live the lives with these people.

    comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Bob Fenster
    Bob Fenster
    Arizona Republic
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    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

    After next March, new editions of the book will boast a different kind of label – one that says 'Now an Oscar-winning motion picture.'

    Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment 1 Comment
    01/01/00
    Chris Vognar
    Chris Vognar
    Dallas Morning News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Click to read the article

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

    ... the best movie of 1998...

    Full Review Source: Cinemaphile.org | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    David Keyes
    David Keyes
    Cinemaphile.org

    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

    Offers both a rare glimpse into African Americans' struggle for survival and happiness in the late 1800's, as well as a mystifying story of ghosts and haunting.

    Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Diane Selkirk
    Diane Selkirk
    Apollo Guide
     
     
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