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Frida

Frida (2002)

tomatometer

76

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 151
Fresh: 115 | Rotten: 36

Frida is a passionate, visually striking biopic about the larger-than-life artist.

64

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 13

Frida is a passionate, visually striking biopic about the larger-than-life artist.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 51,395

My Rating

Movie Info

After being attached to a number of actors, directors, and producers, this long-gestating biography of one of Mexico's most prominent, iconoclastic painters reaches the screen under the guiding hand of producer/star Salma Hayek. Hayek ages some 30 years onscreen as she charts Frida Kahlo's life from feisty schoolgirl to Diego Rivera protégée to world-renowned artist in her own right. Frida details Kahlo's affluent upbringing in Mexico City, and her nurturing relationship with her traditional

R, 2 hr. 3 min.

Drama, Romance

Clancy Sigal, Diane Lake, Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas

Jun 10, 2003

$25.7M

Miramax Films

Cast

All Critics (167) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (118) | Rotten (37) | DVD (34)

Taymor's triumph is that her film, despite its distance from us in some ways, is pertinent and enthralling.

December 2, 2002 Comment
New Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Ms. Taymor gets magnificent performances from Ms. Hayek as Frida and Alfred Molina as the oversexed Diego Rivera.

November 22, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
New York Observer
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Passionate, provocative, hilarious, tragic and just dizzyingly beautiful to behold.

November 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[The screenplay's] flatness ultimately defeats a film that's always a treat to look at.

November 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

At its best, this is grand-scale moviemaking for a larger-than-life figure, an artist who has been awarded mythic status in contemporary culture.

November 8, 2002 Comment
Denver Rocky Mountain News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

No matter what happens to Hayek from this point on, she leaves us Frida.

November 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | Comment
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Sporting mustcahe, Selma Hayek gives a solid performance in the otherwise conventionl and mediocre biopic of the noted Spnish artist.

May 5, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment (1)

Graphic biopic of artist Frida Kahlo.

January 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Taymor conveys in imaginative cinematic fashion how for Frida, creating art and living were one and the same.

January 27, 2009 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

Actress Salma Hayek portrays the famed Mexican surrealist painter in a biopic that neither mythologizes nor decries the artist's accomplishments on or beyond the canvas.

July 2, 2008 Full Review Source: IGN Movies | Comment
IGN Movies

Taymor brings all of her artist's compassion to bear on a subject that deserves it.

February 13, 2008 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Salma Hayek earned an Oscar nomination for her fierce, passionate portrayal of the famous, iconic Mexican painter.

September 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

[A]s in soap opera, drama is synonymous with the torments of love. Hayek is a brave, tireless performer, ... but given the script she can only play Kahlo the "beguiling personality" she liked to think of herself as ... rather than Kahlo the artist.

September 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Blogcritics.org | Comment
Blogcritics.org

Frida boasts a small galaxy of charismatic stars orbiting two appealing actors in the juiciest roles of their careers.

December 6, 2004 Comment
Looking Closer

All in all, a fine array of features augment this DVD.

August 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment
Apollo Guide

While this conventional bio-pic may please middle brow audiences, fans of Ms. Taymor are almost certain to realize that the film could have been so much more than this.

August 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment
Apollo Guide

While Hayek's portrayal is appealing and sincere, it's a shade too adoring. She doesn't convey the excruciating pain that besieged Kahlo.

June 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) | Comment

Disappointingly conventional, particularly given Taymor's past work on stage and screen.

June 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Cinemania | Comment

A glossy, paint-by-numbers portrait best hung in a bank lobby. Taymor seems to forget that what defined Kahlo's artistic output was the terrible pain she endured...

February 16, 2004 Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Frida

Visually brilliant biopic about an original directed by an original. Love, love, love.

September 29, 2007
jennifxu

Super Reviewer

A feast for the eyes...a famine for the ears. This films moments of immense beauty are almost overshadowed by the mediocre acting. While Salma Hayek certainly looks the part, there is a certain shallowness to her acting abilities that really did not do the character justice. And Ashley Judd's performance (though

May 7, 2008
RCCLBC
Robert C

Super Reviewer

Frida Quotes

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Latest News for Frida

June 17, 2005:
A Lot More Actors Climb Aboard the "Poseidon"
Last week we announced that Kurt Russell, Richard Dreyfuss, and Emmy Rossum had been signed to star...

February 4, 2005:
Julie Taymor to Direct Musical

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