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On Golden Pond (1981)

tomatometer

80

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 19,351

My Rating

Movie Info

There's little that happens in On Golden Pond that isn't thoroughly predictable from the start, but the film is blessed with so much star power, charm and honest sentiment that everyone in the audience is willing to ignore the cliches and go the distance. In his last film, Henry Fonda plays Norman Thayer, a cranky 80-year-old retired professor, making his annual pilgrimage with his wife Katharine Hepburn (in her only teaming with Henry Fonda) to their New England summer cottage. Their solitude

PG, 1 hr. 49 min.

Drama

Ernest Thompson

Mar 20, 2001

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (23) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (2) | DVD (7)

When it sometimes seems the whole society has spiritually decamped for Tinseltown, the movie offers the hope that people can come home again-at least for a visit.

June 7, 2011 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Without question, these are major, meaty roles for Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, and there could have been little doubt that the two would work superbly together.

February 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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Watching the movie, I felt I was witnessing something rare and valuable.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
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On Golden Pond is a mixed blessing, but it offers one performance of rare quality and three others that are very good. That's not half-bad.

August 30, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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The cinematic equivalent of shrink-wrapping, in which all of the ideas, feelings, characters, and images are neatly separated and hermetically sealed to prevent spoilage, abrasion, or any contact with the natural world.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment (1)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Valuable lessons in loving one's family members.

January 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Fonda was 75 when this picture was made and must have known he didn't have much time. There could have been no finer final curtain for him than this.

February 4, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

This family melodrama about aging, mortality, and reconciliation is more significant as a social than artistic event: It's the only teaming of Henry Fonda (who won an Oscar) with daughter Jane (who produced it for him) and also with screen icon Hepburn.

June 11, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Two of Hollywood's best-loved veterans deserved a far better swan song than this sticky confection.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment (1)

Wonderful to get one last sweet visit with Mr. Fonda and Ms. Hepburn.

April 3, 2005 Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Stellar cast in left field family values classic.

December 28, 2004 Comment

Pond may be overly sentimental, but the Fondas and Hepburn do capture your heart.

February 3, 2004 Full Review | Comment
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

On Golden Pond is a thematically rich drama exploring marriage, aging, family conflict, death and dying.

January 31, 2004 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | Comment
Spirituality and Practice
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for On Golden Pond

On Golden Pond may have a very straight forward story about a couple growing old together as they now live on "Golden Pond", a quite little place on the water where family and friends come to visit. As their daughter brings her new fiance to visit, they are blessed with a 13 year old grandson, who is a stubborn little

August 29, 2011
KJ Proulx

Super Reviewer

With the subject matter circulating around death, failed relationships, and troubled families it would seem that this would be a shouting match waiting to happen. Instead the plot plays coy, reeling you in with the calm wooded surroundings and the fraility of Ethel and Norman in their ripe old age. The underscored

August 8, 2010
FrizzDrop

Super Reviewer

    1. Ethel Thayer: Sometimes you have to look hard at a person, and realize he's doing the best he can.
    – Submitted by Mark H (12 days ago)
    1. Ethel Thayer: Come here, Norman. Hurry up. The loons! The loons! They're welcoming us back.
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)
    1. Ethel Thayer: Listen to me, mister. You're my knight in shining armor. Don't you forget it. You're going to get back on that horse, and I'm going to be right behind you, holding on tight, and away we're gonna go, go, go!
    – Submitted by Tyler C (10 months ago)
    1. Chelsea Thayer Wayne: Billy: I heard ya turned 80 today. Norman: That what ya heard? Billy: Man, that's....really old Norman: You should meet my father! Billy: Your father's still alive? Norman: No, but you should meet himk!
    – Submitted by Jim B (10 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Am goldenen See (DE)
  • La Maison du lac (FR)
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