The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (2008)
Average Rating: 3.9/10
Reviews Counted: 41
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 36
A listless interpretation of Michael Chabon's first novel, Mysteries of Pittsburgh features none of the source material's charm, but has coming-of-age film cliches in abundance.
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 15
A listless interpretation of Michael Chabon's first novel, Mysteries of Pittsburgh features none of the source material's charm, but has coming-of-age film cliches in abundance.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.6/5
User Ratings: 2,327
My Rating
Movie Info
A recent college graduate desperate to have one last fling before launching himself into the real world falls into a strange love triangle with a charismatic couple in director Rawson Thurber's feature adaptation of Michael Chabon's freshman novel. Peter Sarsgaard, Mena Suvari, Nick Nolte, Sienna Miller, and Jon Foster star in a film that was adapted for the screen by director Thurber. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Jon Foster
Art Bechstein -
Peter Sarsgaard
Cleveland Arning -
Sienna Miller
Jane Bellweather -
Nick Nolte
Joe the Egg Bechstein -
Mena Suvari
Phlox -
-
Omid Abtahi
Mohammed -
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (42) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (37) | DVD (3)
Shoddy and never credible, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is an ungainly coming-of-age drama based on a (hopefully much better) novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon.
Top CriticThe Mysteries of Pittsburgh seems to be missing an essential element of drama, of risk, underneath its glossy, golden sheen.
The movie is all over the place and it loses its focus.
I can't imagine the novel's characters were this flat, formulaic and puzzling in their behavior.
The real mystery about The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is how writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber could turn Michael Chabon's delightful debut novel into such a bore.
When characters say things like "It's gonna be a great summer," or call someone "Old sport" and act oh-so-beautifully doomed, it's time to call the cliché police.
boring and aimless
A mess of a movie, looking to contort Chabon's novel into a darkly personal story of choice and desire. Instead the film sloppily lumbers around in search of a consistent dramatic path. It's handsome enough, just wildly misguided from frame one.
...a film largely tedious and empty.
The fact is, some novels don't translate well to the screen.
Guts the book of complexity and ambiguity and reduces it to another trite coming-of-age story with a badly written voice-over narrative by a boring post-adolescent.
Michael Barrett's cinematography gives the film and the city of Pittsburgh just enough of a picturesque dream-like quality that, like its protagonist, you'll remember.
[Art] is as passive as Benjamin Button minus the freak-of-nature excuse.
Somehow, even as writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber slathers on the voiceover ooze or unwittingly evokes Sophie's Choice with his central romantic triangle, he still manages to astonish with The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.
Sarsgaard revels in a character who attracts all eyes and mouths, but the narration is too much of an explanatory crutch to parse the roundelay of identity exploration.
Here's the big mystery of Pittsburgh: How did this movie manage to be so completely terrible?
A misguided head-spinner of conflicting tones, listless lead performances and dashed expectations.
Audience Reviews for The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for The Mysteries of Pittsburgh yet.
Latest News on The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
April 9, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Hannah Montana Hits A Flat NoteThis week at the movies, we've got a pop songbird (Hannah Montana the Movie, starring Miley and...
What's Hot On RT
The Last Stand, Side Effects
Trailer for new Coen Bros movie
Fast & Furious cars gallery
Blockbusters ranked!
Featured on RT
- In Pictures: The Cars of Fast & Furious 0
- Digital Multiplex: Warm Bodies and Aftershock 5
- Discover the Best-Reviewed Films in Summer Movie Scorecard 2013 0
- RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: The Last Stand and Side Effects 16
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Star Trek Softer Than Expected at #1 86
- Weekly Ketchup: Will Smith to Star in Wild Bunch Remake? 39
- Critics Consensus: Star Trek Into Darkness is Certified Fresh 107
Top Headlines
-
Which Film Franchise Has Been the Best for Female Characters?
4
-
Damon Lindelof Talks Tomorrowland
0
-
10 Movies About Really Fast Cars
1
-
Poltergeist Remake Synopsis Hints at Plot Differences
8
-
Kristen Wiig Says Welcome to Me
1
-
David Fincher's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Gets Bumped
0
-
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance Remake in the Works
0
Fresh Links
Featured
Star Trek Movies Ranked
HitFix offers their own take on the worst-to-best of the Enterprise crew's cinematic adventures.
Top 10 Star Trek Villains
Rolling Stone unveils the Enterprise's most irksome adversaries.
Celebrity Yearkbook Flashback
We'll bet you never realized how many stars were cheerleaders and high school athletes!
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
"The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" is a disappointingly inert adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel(I don't remember that much about it except its ending and that I liked it). In its depiction of a transitional year of 1983, it is about a person caught between the respectability he dreads and the eccentric friends he loves. On the one hand, the movie keeps the central relationships intact, but also manages to lose a lot of the book's offbeat energy in its move to the screen which is best exemplified by the casting of non-entity Jon Foster in the lead. That's not to mention too much reliance on daddy issues and droning narration which does eventually disappear. The supporting cast is very, very good but even they cannot save a movie where there is no center.