A work of considerable artistry.
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
Tomatometer
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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
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
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Reviews for Snow Falling on Cedars
If ever there was an example of a director's getting in the way of a story, this is it.
Scrupulously, meticulously, caringly exposed on the negative, this picture is one of the richest cinematographic efforts of the year.
Snow Falling on Cedars comes closer to the total immersion of a great novel than any movie in recent memory.
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.
Snow Falling on Cedars is a motion picture of great thematic and visual richness.
Snow Falling on Cedars falls victim to its own reverential attitude: it forgets to include some human beings in its passionate defense of them.
Badly hobbled by an over-emphasis upon cinematic technique that obliterates the emotional undertow of the story.
A lushly evocative mood piece that has everything to do with sense and emotion as it doesn't with traditional plot-driven satisfactions.
Hicks' precariously impressionistic interpretation of David Guterson's novel is either artful or a snow job -- and possibly both.
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.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
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