Nothing terribly new happens here, but Bogdanovich plays out his scenes with tenderness and affection, and the honest performances spring to life.
Comment
04/06/06
The Thing Called Love (1993)
55
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:20
Fresh:11
Rotten:9
Average Rating:5.3/10
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: New Yorker Miranda Presley (Samantha Mathis)--no relation to the King--buses it to Nashville and arrives with her guitar and the dream of making it big in country music. She meets other... [More]
Starring: River Phoenix, Samantha Mathis, Dermot Mulroney, Sandra Bullock
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
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Reviews for The Thing Called Love
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
Bogdanovich's modest staging is occasionally awkward -- his kids still watch John Wayne movies at the drive-in -- but there's a convincing sense of what Nashville's like and how country music works.
02/09/06
River Phoenix gives a somnambulant impersonation of Christian Slater impersonating Jack Nicholson, and Samantha Mathis spends much of the movie trying to figure out exactly who her character is.
01/01/00
The Thing Called Love charms and touches.
03/11/06
Perhaps no one could have saved Phoenix, who was not lucky enough to find a higher bottom than death. But this performance in this movie should have been seen by someone as a cry for help.
01/01/00
Top CriticAlthough well acted, with early scenes that deftly sketch the atmosphere, the movie, written by Carol Heikkinen, never takes off.
08/30/04
Top CriticIt bears as little relation to the real Nashville as Altman's 1975 feature, but director Peter Bogdanovich, the talented cast, and the credited and uncredited screenwriters are so busy conjuring up a charming world of their own that I didn't mind.
06/23/02
Top CriticIt's good enough to watch, but not good enough to re-watch.
04/08/06
Perhaps there's not much new to say about the dues and disappointments involved in breaking into the country music scene, but the scenes are fresh and the emotions real in Peter Bogdanovich's tune-laden, mixed-mood drama.
03/26/09
Top CriticAside from its blatantly commercial aspirations and predictable storyline, there is an appealing cast, enjoyable songs and some funny bits of business.
01/01/00
It's so sad that Phoenix went out not with a bang but with this whimper.
01/12/06
Peter Bogdanovich brings conviction but little else to this upbeat response to Robert Altman's Nashville.
06/14/09
Sometimes Bogdanovich is just too intelligent for his own good. While he hardly puts a foot wrong in his observation of shattered ambitions, his curse seems to be that his work will forever be unfashionable.
05/24/03
No review available.
08/29/05
No review available.
09/06/05
No review available.
01/10/03
No review available.
03/04/03
No review available.
11/18/04
No review available.
05/30/03
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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