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Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

tomatometer

40

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.

27

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.

audience

66

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

My Rating

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

David Guterson, Ron Bass, Scott Hicks

May 30, 2000

Universal Studios

Cast

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
Houston Chronicle
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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
Toronto Star
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Plodding and self-serious.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
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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
Washington Post
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A disappointment.

January 1, 2000 Comment
Associated Press
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It's second to none in its ability to specify a world and immerse us in it.

January 1, 2000 Comment
Boston Globe
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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

Good movie for adults and older teens.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
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
Looking Closer

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

November 12, 2002 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
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
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
Matinee Magazine
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Snow Falling on Cedars

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
aliceinpunderland

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
sainttom93
Tom Ericksen

Super Reviewer

    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)

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