A perplexing, dark and brooding exercise.
Comment
05/28/04
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A Slipping Down Life (2004)
26
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:65
Fresh:17
Rotten:48
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Lili Talyor is the best thing in this uninvolving and unconvincing drama.
Theatrical Release:May 14, 2004 Limited
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Anne Tyler, "A Slipping Down Life" is the story of the peculiar courtship of an awkward young woman and a charismatic singer/songwriter, and the profound effect that their... [More]
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Reviews for A Slipping Down Life
Top CriticThere is no way for a love story to work when we don't believe the lovers belong together.
05/28/04
A morose and unconvincing drama about desperate love in a small North Carolina town.
05/28/04
Independent films like to equate smallness with authenticity, but sometimes, unfortunately, they're just small.
05/28/04
What at first seems like observed, exaggerated truth soon reveals itself as a series of writerly conceits being followed doggedly to some logical conclusion.
05/28/04
Top CriticThe plot has a loose string or two, but the details are lived-in, true, down-home but not corny.
05/28/04
Plaintive but exasperating adaptation.
05/28/04
It's too common to complain that a book is better than the movie. But in A Slipping-Down Life, the score trumps what's on screen as well.
05/28/04
The movie is not a great dramatic statement, but you know that from the modesty of the title. It is about movement in emotional waters that had long been still.
05/28/04
Top CriticThe director deserves admiration for sticking to her guns, but here's a heretical notion: Maybe the producer's cut would have been a better movie.
05/28/04
A predictable Up-With-People anthem.
05/28/04
Top CriticThis movie sat on the shelf for years over a distribution dispute - they should have let it slip away quietly.
05/28/04
The film does little more than clock the highs and lows of another of cinema's many, many, many couples.
05/27/04
A Slipping Down Life would disintegrate in a cloud of cutesy, melancholic whimsy if it weren't for the talent of its two leads.
05/27/04
Top CriticThis is one of those rare dramas that drops us into the heart of the Dairy Queen/Bible Belt without seeming in the least patronizing or superior.
05/27/04
Top CriticWhile the movie is content to be merely atmospheric, the performances convince you that here are two misfits who might be a perfect fit.
05/27/04
Top CriticOffers some egalitarian posturing, but squanders its message by placing capable actresses like Taylor and Hall into age-old, subservient roles.
05/27/04
Too precious, too self-conscious and far too enamored with itself to ever have any kind of genuine emotional truth.
05/27/04
A frail independent feature with an impressive cast but not much energy and equally little point.
05/27/04
The film’s tone is just all over the map.
05/27/04
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