A sumptuous, meticulously poetic motion picture that refreshingly tells much of its story through strikingly beautiful visual images, rather than a lot of dialogue.
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
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
You can't say the title for Snow Falling on Cedars is misleading. Because that's pretty much what you get.
Snow Falling on Cedars is a motion picture of great thematic and visual richness.
a first-rate example of a feature film that should have been a coffee table book instead. ...if you want to see how lovingly an amputated arm can be photographed, by all means, step right up.
The actors are valiant, but not bulletproof against the screenplay's almost obsessive romanticism.
The film is at its best in courtroom scenes and related sequences, because it allows (the director and screenwriter) to examine race-relations issues both during and after the war.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
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