Name: Personal Best
Genre: Drama
Released: 2005-11-20T15:01:23-08:00
Rating: 73

critics consensus

Mariel Hemingway has a career-making star turn in this highly physical drama about two Olympic athletes who find each other during competitive training. Read critic reviews

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Personal Best Photos

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Movie Info

Young sprinter Chris Cahill (Mariel Hemingway) is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner (Patrice Donnelly). At first the two women form a friendship as Tory and her coach (Scott Glenn) help Chris with her training. Gradually, Tory and Chris start having a sexual relationship and become very close. Their intimacy becomes complicated when Chris' improvement causes them to be competitors for the Olympic team.

Rating:

R
Genre:

gay and lesbian, drama
Original Language:

English
Director:

Robert Towne
Producer:

Robert Towne
Release Date (Streaming):

Nov 21, 2016
Runtime:

2h 4m
Production Co:

The Geffen Company

Cast & Crew

Mariel Hemingway
Chris Cahill

Patrice Donnelly
Tory Skinner

Scott Glenn
Terry Tingloff

Kenny Moore
Denny Stites

Jim Moody
Roscoe Travis

Kari Gosswiller
Penny Brill

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Critic Reviews for Personal Best

All Critics (33) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (9)

The leads are convincingly athletic, the characters well drawn.

October 22, 2018 | Full Review…

Bob Thomas
Associated Press
[Robert] Towne's direction can be frustrating - at one point Donnelly and Hemingway run up a sand dune for what seems like five minutes - but the result is 50 percent more realistic than the average sports film.

May 30, 2018 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…

Peter Hartlaub
San Francisco Chronicle
But "Personal Best" only jogs along sometimes: It suffers from fleshing out.

May 30, 2018 | Full Review…

Pamela Kessler
Washington Post
Which horrible Eighties haircut to choose? Regardless, you'll be rewarded with some of the most startling and texturally stunning American cinema of that largely barren zone shortly thereafter to be known as the Reagan era. Score!

May 30, 2018 | Full Review…

Chuck Stephens
Film Comment Magazine
Robert Towne's Personal Best is a flashy, hip and quite fascinating investigation into the arduous process of working out sexual identity in today's narcissistic society and culture.

April 28, 2018 | Full Review…

Bruce McCabe
Boston Globe
Personal Best is likable precisely because it is so unembarrassed.

August 4, 2008 | Full Review…

Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
It's fun, like any sporting event. And, like some record-breaking sporting events, it's defining, because in it women are seen as strong, vital and magnificent, and the lovers seem not extraordinary because of their homosexual liaison.

May 26, 2020 | Full Review…

Victoria Brownworth
Philadelphia Gay News
How this film sees a woman's body is, for American cinema, revolutionary.

May 19, 2020 | Full Review…

Janet Singleton
Big Mama Rag
Personal Best is a winner, thanks to its rich characterizations and the interesting behind-the-scenes look it gives us into its unique milieu.

November 20, 2019 | Full Review…

Rick Chatenever
Santa Cruz Sentinel
The camera too often records and predicts what a lascivious man would want to see rather than an aesthetic observer.

August 16, 2019 | Full Review…

Camille Kittrell
Sojourner
Producer-director-screenwriter Robert Towne has fallen dismally short of his own personal best.

May 30, 2018 | Full Review…

People Staff
People Magazine
The camerawork is occasionally fussy and over-reliant on sporting clichés, but this is still subtle, sensual stuff.

May 30, 2018 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

David Parkinson
Radio Times