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Romance and Cigarettes Play Trailer

Romance and Cigarettes (2005)

tomatometer

53

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 60
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 28

This movie musical aims for fun and modern, but Romance and Cigarettes is too scattered and uneven to achieve either.

71

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 6

This movie musical aims for fun and modern, but Romance and Cigarettes is too scattered and uneven to achieve either.

audience

55

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 9,536

My Rating

Movie Info

Actor and filmmaker John Turturro wrote and directed this emotionally resonant blend of music and drama. Nick Murder (James Gandolfini) is an ironworker who has been married for years to Kitty (Susan Sarandon), who works as a seamstress and is the mother of Nick's three daughters. While Nick loves his wife, his head is turned by Tula (Kate Winslet), a sexy salesgirl at a lingerie shop, and soon they're having a passionate affair. When Kitty finds out about Nick's infidelity, she becomes enraged

R,

Romance, Musical & Performing Arts, Art House & International, Comedy

John Turturro

Feb 5, 2008

$0.4M

Boroturro - Official Site External Icon

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Romance and Cigarettes Trailer & Photos

Critic Reviews for Romance and Cigarettes

All Critics (61) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (34) | Rotten (30) | DVD (9)

In a season seasoned with off-beat originality in the movies, from Lars and the Real Girl to I'm Not There, you still have not seen anything quite like John Turturro's extraordinary Romance and Cigarettes.

January 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Film.com
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

How weird is John Turturro's Romance & Cigarettes? Almost indescribably weird, though also strangely involving.

December 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Romance and Cigarettes is a dark-red valentine to the way that pop music gets under our skin.

December 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It is not every musical that features lung cancer and James Gandolfini singing along with Engelbert Humperdinck to that every-day-I-wake-up 1960s standard 'A Man Without Love.'

December 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This singing-along-to-the-radio effect has a dingy charm that honors the blue-collar Italian setting, yet Turturro spoils it by turning the movie into a hip star party.

December 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movies need more of this kind of crazy.

November 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Romance & Cigarettes wears thin, like a moral for the titular addiction: Sure, there's the sweet dream of that first drag, but a whole pack'll do a body bad.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
Austin Chronicle

Se trata de toda una sorpresa, un experimento hecho con pasión y mucha complicidad %u2013se nota- y sin temor al ridículo, lo que la convierte en una obra inusual y arriesgada.

April 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total

... it feels a bit off-key and a lot unfocused.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: MSN.com
Sean Axmaker
MSN.com

When it succeeds, it soars with great abandon, and when it fails, it fails so grandly that we still want to applaud it. This is a madhouse of a movie.

February 18, 2008 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com
David Cornelius
DVDTalk.com

It shouldn't work, but there's something beautiful in Turturro's non-judgmental, almost affectionate, exposure of human love as the courting dance of clueless primates

January 29, 2008 Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

The film has an overall tonal inconsistency and suffers from the occasional bout of tin-ear-itis, which ultimately derails this sometimes interesting attempt at reinvigorating the genre.

December 31, 2007 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide

...you have not lived till you've seen Walken belt out a Tom Jones tune.

December 21, 2007 Full Review Source: OC Weekly
Luke Y. Thompson
OC Weekly

It takes us on a unique, passionately committed journey.

December 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

John Turturro has crafted a truly unique American musical worthy of the Coen brothers' executive producer credits.

December 20, 2007 Full Review Source: Metromix.com
Geoff Berkshire
Metromix.com

One of the most inventive, surprising and challenging American films of 2005. Pity that it's 2007.

December 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy

A step away from Springtime for Hitler -- a classic awful.

December 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
View all critic reviews (61)

Audience Reviews for Romance and Cigarettes

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I love John Turturro so it really pains me to report that he misses the mark quite badly with this film - it's not a terrible film but it is pretty bad compared to how it should have turned out. I loved the acting - Gandolfini & Winslet in particular, I loved the singing and dancing - an unexpected surprise and I loved the way it was directed, very cool and stylish. It's just that the story drags like a one legged horse, yes its surreal non-liner narrative was interesting and fun in parts, but for the most part, it was frustrating, silly and not particularly entertaining. I really don't like writing bad things about this film, I guess because I like everyone involved and i really wanted to like it. Aw well, I hope he keeps directing, I've been meaning to catch up with Passione as it looks good!
January 3, 2012
SirPant
Anthony Lawrie

Super Reviewer

In agreement with Jim Hunter, unless you're Paul Thomas Anderson, having actors sing along with a recording of a song IS "remarkably lame." And especially since so much of Turturro's spoken dialogue has such intriguing rhythms (Kitty's "deep" poem), he should have gone the extra mile and hired a real composer. As is, the songs aren't as thematically relevant as the ones in, say Singin' In the Rain or Moulin Rouge, exemplars of this musical subgenre in which popular songs are put into a movie instead of originally written for it.

Kate Winslet though. Man, has she got that va-va-vavoom! Love her trashy accent, her trashy dancing, her trashy talk.
June 14, 2011
aliceinpunderland
Alice Shen

Super Reviewer

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Latest News on Romance and Cigarettes

August 16, 2007:
Turturro Paying for His Own Romance & Cigarettes
Oh, corporate mergers. Shareholders love 'em, but if you're lost in the shuffle when two industry...

February 1, 2007:
Critical Consensus: "Because" Is Less Than So-So; "Messengers" Not Screened -- Guess The Tomatometer!
This week at the movies, we've got mother/daughter conflict ("Because I Said So," starring...

April 20, 2006:
SF International Fest Starts Today; "Factotum," "Romance," "Companion" and More!
Bay Area RTers, get yourselves to San Francisco this weekend for the annual SF International Film...

View all news

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