The Shawshank Redemption Reviews
Freeman, who is simply a great actor, a man who has never struck a false note in his career, both narrates this tale and anchors it with his authoritative playing.
A passing reference to 'The Count of Monte Cristo' offers a partial clue to what makes this movie compelling.
...a throwback to the kind of serious, literate drama Hollywood used to make.
Boston Globe
Top CriticIt's a simple story elegantly, cleverly told, not to mention expertly acted.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Without a single riot scene or horrific effect, it tells a slow, gentle story of camaraderie and growth, with an ending that abruptly finds poetic justice in what has come before.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
It's the no-bull performances that hold back the flood of banalities.
| Original Score: 4.5/5
It wanders down subplots at every opportunity and ignores an abundance of narrative exit points before settling on the aforementioned finale.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
If the film is perhaps a little slow in its middle passages, maybe that is part of the idea, too, to give us a sense of the leaden passage of time, before the glory of the final redemption.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The Shawshank Redemption is all about hope and, because of that, watching it is both uplifting and cathartic.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
It's a devoutly old-fashioned, spiritually uplifting prison drama about two lifers who must break their emotional shackles before they can finally become free men.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Thanks to fine performances and beautiful photography, you get that inspirational jump-start frame after frame.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
With his gift for rapt pauses, for caressing just the right syllable, Freeman can make a speech like that sound like one of the philosophical nuggets of the ages.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
