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Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 5.2/10
Reviews Counted: 91
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 55

Though Snow Falling on Cedars is beautiful to look at, critics say the story becomes dull and tedious to sit through.

Average Rating: 4.6/10
Critic Reviews: 26
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 19

Though Snow Falling on Cedars is beautiful to look at, critics say the story becomes dull and tedious to sit through.

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liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 7,815

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Movie Info

Nine years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a small town in the Pacific Northwest still struggles with the troubling legacy of U.S. policies against Asian-Americans. In December 1950, just off the shores of San Piedro Island in Washington, a Japanese-American man named Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune) stands accused of murder after his close friend Carl Heine (Eric Thal) is found drowned in icy waters. As the trial gets under way, with Alvin Hooks (James Rebhorn) prosecuting Kazuo and Nels

PG-13, 2 hr. 8 min.

Drama, Romance

Directed By: Scott Hicks

Written By: David Guterson, Ron Bass, Scott Hicks

In Theaters: Dec 22, 1999 Limited

On DVD: May 30, 2000

Universal Studios

Snow Falling on Cedars Trailer & Photos

Cast

Ethan Hawke
Ishmael Chambers
James Cromwell
Judge Fielding
Richard Jenkins
Sheriff Art Moran
James Rebhorn
Alvin Hooks
Sam Shepard
Arthur Chambers
Eric Thal
Carl Heine
Max von Sydow
Nels Gudmundsson
Youki Kudoh
Hatsue Imada
Rick Yune
Kazuo Miyamoto
Jan Rudes
Ole Jurgensen
Celia Weston
Etta Heine
Max Wright
Horace Whaley
Arija Bareikis
Susan Marie Heine
Zeljko Ivanek
Dr.Whitman
Caroline Kava
Helen Chambers
Zak Orth
Deputy Abel Martinson
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Zenhichi Miyamoto
Daniel von Bargen
Carl Heine Sr.
Reeve Carney
Young Ishmael Chambers
Anne Suzuki
Young Hatsue Imada
Frank C. Turner
Juror
Akira Takayama

Critic Reviews for Snow Falling on Cedars

All Critics (104) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (57) | DVD (13)

The actors are valiant, but not bulletproof against the screenplay's almost obsessive romanticism.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle

| Comment

Jeff Millar

Houston Chronicle

Top Critic

Too faithful to the many time shifts, plot points and layered meanings of David Guterson's best-selling novel, robbing the movie of dramatic tension.

January 1, 2000 Comment

Peter Howell

Toronto Star

Top Critic

Plodding and self-serious.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Comment

Edward Guthmann

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

Casting Hawke as Ishmael Chambers in a mediocre movie version of Snow Falling on Cedars is pretty much the kiss of death.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comment

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

A disappointment.

January 1, 2000 Comment

Bob Thomas

Associated Press

Top Critic

It's second to none in its ability to specify a world and immerse us in it.

January 1, 2000 Comment

Jay Carr

Boston Globe

Top Critic

Shot either in extreme, eye-swelling close-ups or in excessively composed, arty landscapes, I now know more about the blood vessels in these actors' noses than I care to.

July 5, 2011 Full Review Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser

| Comment

Burl Burlingame

Honolulu Star-Advertiser Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Good movie for adults and older teens.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

| Comment

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

... it powerfully re-creates the history, captures the essence of Guterson's characters, and carries us through hypnotized by breathtaking cinematography.

December 6, 2004 Comment

Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

...the movie is, for the most part, just unreasonably dull.

November 12, 2002 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews

| Comment

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

Badly hobbled by an over-emphasis upon cinematic technique that obliterates the emotional undertow of the story.

August 21, 2002 Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice

| Comment

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality and Practice

Hicks and cinematographer Robert Richardson give this interdicted love affair an emotional immediacy with the sheer brute force of their images.

March 23, 2001 Full Review Source: Matinee Magazine

| Comment

Chuck Rudolph

Matinee Magazine

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Snow Falling on Cedars

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Beautiful performances, cinematography, editing, and score. BUT I must say watching this film again with a total paranoid cynic who doesn't think films should get wrapped up in the awesomeness of their own beauty has harshed my mellow a bit. The montages and flashback/forward editing ARE slightly self-indulgent and

June 7, 2007

Alice Shen

Super Reviewer

This is the first movie I've ever seen that addressed the issue of the Japanese internment during WWII (aside from the fleeting reference in Midway) -- It shows how Childhood friendship pays off in adulthood -- I loved it!

October 23, 2007

Tom Ericksen

Super Reviewer

Snow Falling on Cedars Quotes

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1. Nels Gudmundsson: Accident rules every corner of the universe... except perhaps the chambers of the human heart.
– Submitted by Chad E (5 months ago)