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Movies / On DVD / Snow Falling on Cedars
Snow Falling on Cedars

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Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

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Reviews Counted:88

Fresh:35

Rotten:53

Average Rating:5.2/10

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

Runtime: 2 hrs 8 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Fog as thick and palpable as cotton hangs suspended over San Piedro Island. On the bay, a flickering lantern signals distress from a crippled fishing boat, while elsewhere a freighter lurches... Fog as thick and palpable as cotton hangs suspended over San Piedro Island. On the bay, a flickering lantern signals distress from a crippled fishing boat, while elsewhere a freighter lurches blindly through the chalky mist. By morning, sea and sky are clear, but the tranquil village of fisherman and berry farmers will forever be changed. For one man has lost his life, and another -- a childhood friend -- has been charged with taking it. An investigation is launched. The trial begins.

A reporter covering the trial, Ishmael Chambers, sits in the courtroom, carefully observing the person with whom he shared the rapturous secrets of childhood, the only woman he has ever loved. Hatsue, the defendant's wife. Their tortured relationship will have an unexpected bearing on the trial of Kazuo Miyamoto, which serves to frame Snow Falling On Cedars. -- © 1999 Universal Pictures [More]

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Max Von Sydow, James Cromwell

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Max Von Sydow, James Cromwell, Richard Jenkins, James Rebhorn, Rick Yune, Sam Shepard, Eric Thal, Zeljko Ivanek

Director: Scott Hicks

Director: Scott Hicks
Screenwriter: Ron Bass, Scott Hicks
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Ronald Bass, Harry J. Ufland
Composer: James Newton Howard

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jun 24, 2003

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Snow Falling on Cedars

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
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A work of considerable artistry.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jason Anderson
Jason Anderson
eye WEEKLY

If ever there was an example of a director's getting in the way of a story, this is it.

comment Comment
01/01/00
David Ansen
David Ansen
Newsweek
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Scrupulously, meticulously, caringly exposed on the negative, this picture is one of the richest cinematographic efforts of the year.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Report Card | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ross Anthony
Ross Anthony
Hollywood Report Card

Snow Falling on Cedars comes closer to the total immersion of a great novel than any movie in recent memory.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Todd Anthony
Todd Anthony
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Its outcome seems predictable, its noble characters are familiar and often one-dimensional, and it has nothing particularly new to say about the mistreatment of the homefront Japanese Americans.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
01/01/00
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Snow Falling on Cedars is a motion picture of great thematic and visual richness.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Prettily photographed yet morbidly gloomy.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jami Bernard
Jami Bernard
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A truly transporting, layered, period drama.

Full Review Source: SPLICEDWire | comment Comment
01/01/00
Rob Blackwelder
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire

Snow Falling on Cedars falls victim to its own reverential attitude: it forgets to include some human beings in its passionate defense of them.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
01/01/00
Tom Block
Tom Block
culturevulture.net

A gorgeously photographed but turgid screen adaptation.

Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly | comment Comment
01/01/00
Philip Booth
Philip Booth
Orlando Weekly

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

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
08/21/02
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

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

comment Comment
01/01/00
Jay Carr
Jay Carr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The best love story of 1999.

Full Review Source: Norman Transcript | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jim Chastain
Jim Chastain
Norman Transcript

To Kill a Mockingbird with fish and snow.

Full Review Source: IFilm | comment Comment
01/01/00
David Chute
David Chute
IFilm

A visual and emotional feast.

Full Review Source: CNN.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Paul Clinton (CNN.com)
Paul Clinton (CNN.com)
CNN.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

On an emotional level, Snow Falling on Cedars struck us deeply.

Full Review Source: CinemaSense.Com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Cornell & Petricelli
Cornell & Petricelli
CinemaSense.Com

A lushly evocative mood piece that has everything to do with sense and emotion as it doesn't with traditional plot-driven satisfactions.

Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
TheMovieReport.com

Hicks' precariously impressionistic interpretation of David Guterson's novel is either artful or a snow job -- and possibly both.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
01/01/00
Duane Dudek
Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Reveals itself with the complexity of a novel, holding its themes up to the light so that first one and then another aspect can be seen.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Snow Falling doesn't melt, but it drifts.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
01/01/00
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune
 
 
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