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The Yellow Handkerchief (2008)

tomatometer

68

Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 47
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 15

Small and intimate -- occasionally to a fault -- The Yellow Handkerchief rises above its overly familiar ingredients thanks to riveting performances from William Hurt and Kristen Stewart.

83

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 3

Small and intimate -- occasionally to a fault -- The Yellow Handkerchief rises above its overly familiar ingredients thanks to riveting performances from William Hurt and Kristen Stewart.

audience

61

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 12,128

My Rating

Movie Info

A band of outsiders takes to the highways in this touching independent drama. Brett (William Hurt) is a petty criminal who is eager to turn his life around after spending six years in jail. Brett is looking for a ride home to Louisiana, and happens upon a pair of teenagers up for a road trip -- Martine (Kristen Stewart), a 15-year-old girl whose attempts to catch the eye of a boy she loves have ended in failure, and Gordy (Eddie Redmayne), a geeky outcast wishing he could find somewhere to fit

PG-13, 1 hr. 42 min.

Drama, Romance

Erin Dignam

Jul 1, 2010

$0.2M

Samuel Goldwyn Films

Cast

All Critics (47) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (32) | Rotten (15)

This is basically brooding people doing awkward things in a humid environment.

April 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Yellow Handkerchief is a love story. Two, really. At its center is the sweetly fractured ticking of a broken heart on the mend.

March 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
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This modest but moving indie ensemble piece puts three estimable actors in a convertible, sets them on a long drive to post-Katrina Louisiana and lets the character dynamics do the rest.

March 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Yellow Handkerchief is a surprisingly moving drama -- a throwback to the small, character-driven indies of yesteryear.

March 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | Comment
Philadelphia Inquirer
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Even Stewart, an untutored colt of an actress who can toggle between natural grace and utter haplessness, finds her groove here.

March 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You don't need an original story for a movie. You need original characters and living dialogue.

March 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Taking time off from vampire infatuation but still into Native male magnets, Kristen Stewart does a snobby sexpot, while the bayou weepie conjures a relentless alien place where crocodiles, snakes and eccentric when not unhinged redneck humans roam free

October 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Reelrave | Comment
Reelrave

A well-acted little film, The Yellow Handkerchief captures the loneliness of these characters and the sparks of hope they harbor, despite everything.

August 11, 2010 Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | Comment
San Diego Union-Tribune

This uplifting film is an indie gem with a wonderful payoff that will bring you to tears. The acting is superlative and makes this emotionally moving experience good to the last drop.

May 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Entertainment Spectrum | Comment

When The Yellow Handkerchief finally hooks into the meat of Hamill's source story, the narrative tension puts enough wind in the film's sails to arrive at its corny but sentimentally satisfying conclusion.

April 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | Comment
Austin Chronicle

William Hurt and Kristen Stewart and a long, sleepy road

April 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI) | Comment
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

Unfortunately, the precision and presence Hurt brings to the table aren't enough to carry this warmed-over Southern melodrama.

April 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Oregonian | Comment
Oregonian

The only positive thing about the aimless film The Yellow Handkerchief is the idea that William Hurt may be ready for his Jeff Bridges moment.

April 1, 2010 Comment
Miami Herald

The unhurried direction of Udayan Prasad and the unafraid choices of the sure-footed cast keep this character-driven drama afloat.

April 1, 2010 Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Comment
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Never feels like anything but a movie with its characters who constantly say what they're feeling and doing and it never once feels genuine or organic.

March 16, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Retriever | Comment
Movie Retriever

The story arc of Handkerchief is entirely predictable, and the direction is pedestrian. But its pleasures are to be found in the graceful acting of Hurt and Bello...

March 12, 2010 Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | Comment
St. Paul Pioneer Press

It's a road movie, so everyone argues, then confides in one another, then come out besties in the end. And if you can't guess where the central, broken romance is heading, finding out is as easy as a song.

March 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Washington City Paper | Comment
Washington City Paper

Prasad's take on the well-traveled folk tale (it didn't originate with Hamill -- he was just smart enough to put it down on paper) won't win any Oscars...

March 10, 2010 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Yellow Handkerchief

A love lost in the past. A love struggling for a future.Good movie. Kinda of a slow story but develops really well if you have the patience. The film's perspective is about tolerance, acceptance of things as they are, and forgiveness for loved ones and above all for ones self. A very good performance from William Hurt

August 23, 2010
xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
Manu Gino

Super Reviewer

The legendary William Hurt does a fantastic job in this moving, yet rather slow, drama. The performances by all were subtle, layered, and charming. A really good story told in a really nice way, with an extremely touching ending. Good Indie flick.

November 21, 2011
itsjustme2004

Super Reviewer

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