An American Rhapsody Reviews
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Somewhere in the blurry An American Rhapsody, there's a clear idea for a movie. Or, rather, five movies.
Top CriticThe movie is a little crude for the subtlety of the emotions it plays with.
Entertainment Today
Just another faux-weepy drama told with a standard fetishistic immigrant's sentimentality.
Full Review
| Original Score: D+
Reeling Reviews
..."An American Rhapsody" takes a bumpy road on its way home.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Reeling Reviews
The best little thing in "An American Rhapsody" is the charming performance by Kelly Endresz Banlaki as six-year-old Suzanne.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
Gardos, an experienced film editor, has little narrative sense, and decent performances ... are left out to dry.
Such a heartfelt labor of love that I almost feel guilty picking apart this maddeningly uneven autobiographical tale.
| Original Score: 2/4
No filmmaker would build a story this unusual from scratch and then treat it so reverently without any style, humor or, at least, idiosyncratic observations.
A near-great film for about an hour that changes into a self-indulgent mess.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
This should be a fascinating story, but An American Rhapsody never develops a melody or a rhythm, much less the epiphany the title suggests.
Compuserve
Too schematic and predictable to tug at the heartstrings, this is nonetheless a labor of love for the director who presents the story of her early life.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Film Journal International
Gardos' film turns a poignant tale of displacement into melodrama.
Its emotional sweep is ultimately undercut by murky characterizations and generic plotting.
TV Guide's Movie Guide
The self-contained second half ... is a trite, blocky, Afterschool Special about a bratty 15-year-old.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
IFilm
Overall, this movie wants your tears, it just doesn't know how to wring 'em out of you.
San Diego Union-Tribune
Like a heartfelt synopsis of every standardized, TV-bio drama that sets your goodwill racing against boredom.
Simultaneously poignant and heavy-handed, sentimental and sententious.
| Original Score: 2.5/5
A bland Hallmark card that serves as a tired tribute to family fortitude.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Film Freak Central
Over-burdened vignettes that among them share only a desire to manufacture unearned pathos and manipulate events towards the most expedient solution.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
