The Anniversary Party (2001)
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.
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Critic Reviews: 33
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 14
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.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 6,329
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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
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Cast
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Alan Cumming
Joe Therrian -
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Sally Therrian -
Jane Adams (II)
Clair Forsyth -
Mina Badie
Monica Rose -
Jennifer Beals
Gina Taylor -
Phoebe Cates
Sophia Gold -
John Benjamin Hickey
Jerry Adams -
Kevin Kline
Cal Gold -
Denis O'Hare
Ryan Rose -
Gwyneth Paltrow
Skye Davidson -
Parker Posey
Judy Adams -
John C. Reilly
Mac Forsyth -
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Mary-Lynn -
Michael Panes
Levi Panes -
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All Critics (118) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (70) | Rotten (46) | DVD (21)
Too formlessly turgid.
Top CriticThe acting is what makes this picture worth framing.
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.
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.
What distinguishes The Anniversary Party from the movies/lives that inspired it is the dead-on quality of much of the writing and acting.
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.
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
...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.
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.
... it's fascinating to search for these characters' hearts under the layers of makeup, denial, disguise, excuses, fantasies, and ego.
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.
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.
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.
Co-directors Jason Leigh and Cummings have delivered an uncharacteristically smart comedy with surprising dramatic turns and excellent performances across the board.
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Latest News on 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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