1917
Just Mercy
The Lighthouse
Dare Me
Got more questions about news letters? Email support@rottentomatoes.com
Already have an account? Log in here
Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password.
We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your account. Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified.
Please reference “Error Code 2121” when contacting customer service.
The Sheltering Sky puts its talented stars at odds with a misguided and largely unsatisfying adaptation of potentially unfilmable source material.
Tap to review this movie
Super Reviewer
Rate this movie
Oof, that was Rotten.
Meh, it passed the time.
It’s good – I’d recommend it.
Awesome!
So Fresh: Absolute Must See!
You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.
Step 2 of 2
Fandango
AMC (Coming Soon)
We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.
Cinemark (Coming Soon)
Regal (Coming Soon)
Bought somewhere else
By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.
Rent or buy
All Critics (24) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (12) | Rotten (12)
A disappointingly reductive adaptation of Paul Bowles's first novel. Dec 7, 2007 | Full Review…
A disappointingly reductive adaptation of Paul Bowles's first novel.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Those who haven't read the book will be left bewildered. Dec 7, 2007 | Full Review…
Those who haven't read the book will be left bewildered.
Variety Staff
As you'd expect, it's a big, handsome film, rich and strange in psychological depths and eroticism. Malkovich and Winger play woundingly well. Jun 24, 2006 | Full Review…
As you'd expect, it's a big, handsome film, rich and strange in psychological depths and eroticism. Malkovich and Winger play woundingly well.
A long, beautifully modulated cry of despair. May 20, 2003 | Rating: 4/5
A long, beautifully modulated cry of despair.
Vincent Canby
[A] frustrating, monotonously obscure movie. Jan 1, 2000 | Full Review…
[A] frustrating, monotonously obscure movie.
Hal Hinson
The book is so complete, so deep and so self-contained that it shuts the movie out. Bertolucci shows us the outsides and the surfaces, and a person seeing this movie without having read the book might ask what it is about. Jan 1, 2000 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…
The book is so complete, so deep and so self-contained that it shuts the movie out. Bertolucci shows us the outsides and the surfaces, and a person seeing this movie without having read the book might ask what it is about.
Roger Ebert
Filled with stunning visuals. Mar 11, 2011 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…
Filled with stunning visuals.
Dennis Schwartz
Disappointing. Dec 7, 2007 | Full Review…
Disappointing.
Film4 Staff
Brimming with obscure meaning and devoid of drive and fervor, the film dries up in that symbolic desert sun, the victim of its own pretensions and a casualty of trying to film something best suited to the realm of cult literature. Dec 7, 2007 | Rating: 1.5/4 | Full Review…
Brimming with obscure meaning and devoid of drive and fervor, the film dries up in that symbolic desert sun, the victim of its own pretensions and a casualty of trying to film something best suited to the realm of cult literature.
Bertolucci's grand desert epic gets stuck in the sand right at the start. Dec 6, 2005 | Rating: 2.5/5
Bertolucci's grand desert epic gets stuck in the sand right at the start.
Christopher Null
(No quote available.) Jan 30, 2004 | Rating: 2/5
(No quote available.)
Daniel M. Kimmel
Soul searching is rarely a thrill a minute but it's rarely as tedious as this. ...Oscar-bait it may be, but "The Sheltering Sky" is more deserving of the First Annual Chicken Little Award. Aug 5, 2003 | Rating: 1.5/4 | Full Review…
Soul searching is rarely a thrill a minute but it's rarely as tedious as this. ...Oscar-bait it may be, but "The Sheltering Sky" is more deserving of the First Annual Chicken Little Award.
James Sanford
View All Quotes
View All