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The Anniversary Party (2001)

tomatometer

60

Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 111
Fresh: 67 | Rotten: 44

This Party features a killer cast and many funny scenes, but the movie feels like nothing more than an excuse for the actors to emote.

58

Average Rating: 5.5/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 13

This Party features a killer cast and many funny scenes, but the movie feels like nothing more than an excuse for the actors to emote.

audience

54

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 6,194

My Rating

Movie Info

In this Dogma 95-inspired first feature for acclaimed performers Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming, the two star as Joe and Sally Therrian, a couple who have recently reconciled after a yearlong separation, and who decide to throw a sixth anniversary party in their honor. They invite a bevy of Hollywood types, including Skye Davidson (Gwyneth Paltrow), a young, beautiful, Ecstasy-pushing actress appointed to play a character based on Sally in the new feature film based on Joe's successful

R, 1 hr. 55 min.

Drama, Comedy

,

Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Jan 15, 2002

$3.0M

Fine Line Features

Cast

All Critics (118) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (70) | Rotten (46) | DVD (21)

Too formlessly turgid.

July 27, 2001 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The acting is what makes this picture worth framing.

June 26, 2001 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The best thing that one can say about The Anniversary Party is that it raises more questions about its central characters than it can possibly answer -- which may weaken it as a drama but not as a search for truth.

June 25, 2001 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The result is something like being stuck at an audition for someone else's play, which you haven't read, won't invest in, and don't care too much about.

June 22, 2001 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

If digital looks like this and makes it possible for such funny and intimate chamber pieces to come into existence, then bring on the digital movies.

June 22, 2001 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This film is monumentally annoying.

June 22, 2001 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment
Sacramento Bee
Top Critic IconTop Critic

As first film, it suffers from problems of most movies directed by actors: Big emotional scenes and indulgent acting, but it has some moments of truth

April 20, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

...because Cumming and Leigh avoid most (though not all) of the easy choices common to first-time writers and directors, the movie stays on the right side of entertaining.

April 5, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
DVDJournal.com

What makes this DVD extra appealing is the tutorial it gives to filmmakers or curious viewers who have an interest in digital video as more than a means to send the kid's birthday party to grandma in Des Moines.

April 5, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
DVDJournal.com

... it's fascinating to search for these characters' hearts under the layers of makeup, denial, disguise, excuses, fantasies, and ego.

December 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Looking Closer | Comment
Looking Closer

Intenso e fascinante, o filme se apóia inteiramente no imenso talento de seu elenco e é recompensado com atuações absolutamente irretocáveis - e é claro que a dupla de diretores merece créditos por isto.

October 12, 2003 Comment
Cinema em Cena

Lo que hicieron Leigh y Cumming fue reunir a un grupo de amigos actores, y disparar algunas acideces sobre comportamientos más bien frívolos que generalmente esconden costados más amargos del ser humano.

March 22, 2003 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total

A raw yet relaxed film buff's film... a wittier, recast version of one of your own dinner parties, with enough high drama to keep the guests talking for quite a while.

January 16, 2003 Full Review Source: Entertainment Today | Comment
Entertainment Today

Co-directors Jason Leigh and Cummings have delivered an uncharacteristically smart comedy with surprising dramatic turns and excellent performances across the board.

December 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Anniversary Party

I really liked it the first time I saw it. Not so much the second time.

November 20, 2006
mjgildea

Super Reviewer

This is what happens when you let just anyone direct films...films like these.

December 23, 2009
EbertsLittleApprentice

Super Reviewer

The Anniversary Party Quotes

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Latest News for The Anniversary Party

December 13, 2005:
Cumming, Heche & Boreanaz to Work for "Charity"
Actor/director Alan Cumming will helm and star in "Suffering Man's Charity," a dark comedy...

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