Blue Car (2002)
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 85
Fresh: 69 | Rotten: 16
A cautionary tale that rings true.
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 3
A cautionary tale that rings true.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 2,422
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Movie Info
The coming-of-age drama Blue Car is the directorial debut feature from actress Karen Moncrieff. Played by newcomer Agnes Bruckner, quiet high school student Meg lives in an apartment complex where she takes care of her troubled little sister, Lily (Regan Arnold), while her emotionally unavailable mom (Margaret Colin) is busy at work or school. Since her dad left, the family has been under financial strain and Lily suffers from starvation, delusions, and self mutilation. Meg maintains a calm
Cast
-
Agnes Bruckner
Meg -
David Strathairn
Mr. Auster -
Margaret Colin
Diane -
Frances Fisher
Delia -
Regan Arnold
Lily -
A.J. Buckley
Pat -
Sarah Beuhler
Georgia -
Amy Benedict
Diner Waitress -
Peer J. Oppenheimer
Diner Customer -
Kristan Andrews
Florida Oasis Cocktail ... -
Greg Marc Miller
Priest -
Mike Ward
Meg's Father -
Wendy Lardin
Georgia's Mom -
Michael Raysses
Mr. Kastran -
Dustin Sterling
Rob -
Wayne Armstrong
Don -
Dan Buran
Cop -
David Carroll
Department Store Manage... -
Jacqueline Childs
Pharmacist -
Jeff Gage
Pawn Shop Owner -
Jane Mowder
Nurse -
Jenn O'nofrio
Blonde Girl -
Aftab Pureval
Boy in Class -
Jaime Scheingross
Girl in the Yellow Dres... -
Julie Schuster
Bank Teller -
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Blue Car Trailer & Photos
All Critics (95) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (69) | Rotten (16) | DVD (5)
Moncrieff grabs us with details and dialogue so authentic ... that she often makes us feel as if we're standing on our toes and peering in the window of one of our neighbors.
Top CriticWorth watching for the coming-out party of Agnes Bruckner, a relative newcomer who shows her mettle with an extraordinary performance in this very ordinary tear-jerker.
An impressive first effort from Ms. Moncrieff, but the eternal Aristotelian in me finds it depressing to watch characters always walking around in moral quicksand.
A well-intentioned coming-of-age film anchored by two indelible performances but weakened by an overabundance of drama.
The film is strengthened by the two leading performances.
We've seen this unhappy scenario played out many times before, but seldom with a better eye for detail.
...falters because it hews too closely to the witless cant of the average guy as a potential sex criminal.
Though the story is fragile, Bruckner's superlative acting registers Meg's feelings with the dead-on accuracy of an emotional geiger counter.
Vivid performances . . . the film's warmly luminous look and the richly rendered view of a troubled but talented teen's struggles with the adult world sustain the film.
Cuts both ways: the poetry and the acting were hot, the story and the cinematography were not so hot.
I found this movie fascinating -- but not an easy one to sit through. It's seems excruciatingly real.
At the film's center Bruckner more than holds her own, beautifully capturing the anger, uncertainty and yearnings of an unhappy kid impatient for her 'real' life to begin.
Moncrieff, though seemingly incapable of lacing a story with surprises, writes snappy dialogue.
The truest depiction I have ever seen on film of how children grow up with divorced parents. Hollywood blockbuster hype notwithstanding, this is actually the must-see movie of the summer.
Painful to watch, yet it never sinks to melodrama.
Blue Car boasts great talent in Bruckner, Straithairn and Moncrieff... [but] that talent isn't enough to get over the obstacles in the movie's second half.
borrows heavily from her television soap experience but doesn't collapse totally into the banal
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"Blue Car" tells a delicate story of an exceptionally bright teenage girl cast adrift by a self-absorbed mother who barely notices when she's in the room. The girl retreats into herself, explores sad memories of being abandoned by her father, and ends up penning poetry that dazzles and frightens her intelligent but lonely English teacher (played beautifully by David Strathairn.)
He volunteers to coach her after school to develop her poetry even further, and so begins a journey that sometimes is too beautiful and too painful for both of them. The film gets sidetracked into a separate drama concerning the girl's younger sister, which weakens the film and makes its sadness a bit over-thick. But the journey of discovery that the girl and man go on is at times the stuff of great literature. Actress Agnes Bruckner gives a breakthrough performance as the girl, and it is beyond belief that she wasn't nominated for an Oscar. Her work is so good that I venture to say that hers is the best teenage acting performance of the decade.
"Blue Car" helps to remind us how life-changing and essential friendships between teenagers and adults can be -- but also how overwhelming and destabilizing they can be. As tough as these relationships are -- for both parties -- they are often the crucible in which new life, and new art, is born.