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The Sheltering Sky puts its talented stars at odds with a misguided and largely unsatisfying adaptation of potentially unfilmable source material.
All Critics (24) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (12) | Rotten (12) | DVD (1)
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
I would feel like I was overlooking some considerable flaws if I called this movie perfect, but I am perfectly okay with saying that I loved it. Bertolucci's direction is as powerful as ever, controlling tone and atmosphere with the precision we expect from him. This is among his most visually beautiful work, with Vittorio Storaro's cinematography providing aesthetic poetry in almost every scene. Peculiarly constructed and sometimes confusing, I found this film's debatable narrative faults to be conducive to its overall effect. John Malkovich and Debra Winger are outstanding, and there are plenty of strong supporting performances as well. A beautiful, unnerving epic drama.
Super Reviewer
A painfully long movie...
The worst!!! When its finally over you find yourself asking, how can so many talented people make something this pretentious and odious.
Bertolucci's worst film. I would rather tear my eyes out than see this again.
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