Do you want to see ‘Rambling Rose’?

Rambling Rose (1991)

tomatometer

All Critics
Top Critics

100

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 0

A touching. bittersweet, and wonderfully-acted film.

100

Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 0

A touching. bittersweet, and wonderfully-acted film.

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 2,368

My Rating

Added to your Facebook Timeline. — undo

Movie Info

Rambling Rose is the most part a flashback, related by grown-up Southerner Buddy Hillyer (John Heard). The bulk of the film takes place in 1935, when rambunctious backwoods housekeeper Rose (Laura Dern) virtually invades the Hillyer household. Daddy Hillyer (Robert Duvall), a bed-rock Southern gentleman, welcomes the congenitally amoral but basically goodhearted Rose into his house, carefully fending off her ill-timed romantic advances. But Rose can't help feeling smitten with him; meanwhile,

R, 1 hr. 55 min.

Drama, Comedy

Directed By: Martha Coolidge

In Theaters: Sep 10, 1991 Wide

On DVD: Mar 16, 1999

Live Home Video

Rambling Rose Trailer & Photos

Cast

Laura Dern
Rose
Robert Duvall
Daddy Hillyer
Diane Ladd
Mother Hillyer
Lukas Haas
Willcox "Buddy" Hillyer
John Heard
Willcox Hillyer
Kevin Conway
Dr. Martinson
Robert John Burke
Police Chief David Wilk...
Lisa Jakub
Doll Hillyer
Evan Lockwood
Waski Hillyer
Matt Sutherland
Billy
James Binns
Minister
Michael C. Gwynne
General Fermon Judd Jr.
Shadrack
Michael Mott
Man in Store
Richard K. Olsen
Chief of Police
D. Anthony Pender
Foster
Dale Robertson
Young Salesman
David E. Scarborough
Horton
Jeffrey Smith
Stand-In
Aleta Helena Chappelle

Critic Reviews for Rambling Rose

All Critics (21) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (0) | DVD (2)

It's a beauty.

May 12, 2001 Comment

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

[A] funny, moving, spectacularly acted little film.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Hal Hinson

Washington Post

Top Critic

Willingham, who also scripted Paths of Glory, Little Big Man and The Graduate, wrote Rose in the early 1970s. Thanks to these sterling performances almost two decades later, his screenplay enjoys a fresh and tender blossoming.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

The movie is all character and situation, and contains some of the best performances of the year, especially in the ensemble acting of the four main characters.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

Seen in a flashback through the eyes of an adolescent, this uncommon coming-of-age tale, which raises poignant questions about the mysteries of sex and love, flaunts a superb performance from Laura Dern as the promiscuous girl

October 31, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

A quirky, funny but moving story with terrific performances all around.

July 17, 2003 Comment

Rob Thomas

Capital Times (Madison, WI)

Probes the mixture of fear and awe many men experience when they meet the life-force of women.

May 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice

| Comment

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality and Practice

A modest but pleasingly adult entertainment at a time when even the most promising American films ultimately revert to Pollyannaish platitudes.

January 9, 2002 Full Review Source: Movieline

| Comment

Stephen Farber

Movieline

A touching, humorous and enjoyable film.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide

| Comment

Brian Webster

Apollo Guide

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Rambling Rose

View All

This unusual coming-of-age movie is charming, warm, witty and full of delightful surprise about a naive but sexually uninhibited girl arrives in an old-fashioned Southern household and soon has all the men in the family, indeed in the town, in a tizzy.

March 19, 2007

Dean McKenna

Super Reviewer

Vivid characterizations from a terrific cast. Laura Dern and Robert Duvall are particularly good. Diane Ladd scores in a supporting role. Fine period flavor, excellent score and it?s very well written. Excellent.

December 8, 2009