Rating: 
Summary: IT WAS LIFE
Review: I saw the movie about two years ago. Although some say it was confusing, boring, etc., I understood it completely. It was life.
Rating: 
Summary: Oprah lays an egg
Review: The acting in this was incredible, and there were a lot of great scenes, but the movie is just horrendous to have to sit through, rarely makes any sense, and ultimately is completely unsatisfying. Toward the end, it became comedic for me (perhaps I had been sitting in the theatre too long), I found myself rooting AGAINST Oprah's character, and I thought the Beah Richards cameo was over-hyped. If you liked the book and/or like Oprah, give it a try. If not, stay away at all costs!
Rating: 
Summary: It was wonderful!
Review: A stirring and exciting movie, filled with passion and heart. I was by far one of the best movies I've seen this year.
Rating:
Summary: Give it a try
Review: Yes, it is confusing. Yes, it is quite long. But if you pay attention, you will be challenged, moved, and captivated by this haunting film. The acting is superb and so is the music. The story encompasses not just the physical, but the psychological horrors and impact of slavery; the currents of love that run between mothers and children (especially daughters); and what it might be like to live through some absolutely horrible and terrriftying experiences. It was thought-provoking and wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: A Stirring and Powerful Achievement by Oprah Winfrey
Review: A stirring and powerful portrayal of Toni Morrison's story of enslaved human beings and their dogged, determined flight to freedom; the profound effect of the Institution of American Slavery on its victims...Stunning perfomances by Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover... A wonderful, inspiring, studious and soul strirring achievement by Oprah Winfrey, the Queen of daytime talkshows... a must for anyone's library....
Rating:
Summary: Beloved Attempt of a Masterpiece
Review: Go read the book by Toni Morrison. It is brilliant and haunting. The movie does a wonderful job of portraying the complexity of the novel. The acting, especially the 3 female leads, were heartbreaking and briliant. I am still shocked that they weren't nominated for any major awards. Die hard Oprah fans will be pleasantly pleased. Although it is a shockingly real portrayal of slavery, it is beautiful story of true love and dealing with a past that haunts you. I was moved beyond compare.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable adaptation of an outstanding life-changing book
Review: A remarkable adaptation of an outstanding, life-changing book. Oprah Winfrey and Toni Morrison are true geniuses. I am proud to live on the same planet as these two great women. I do have one suggestion. C'est dommage! One of the greatest films in the Amazon.com DVD Collection has no French soundtrack or closed captions. Anyone who has learned English as a second language in the US in recent years will tell you how helpful closed captions on TV have been as a learning tool. Teachers of French would love to see this be routinely adopted as an industry standard. My fear is that the movie industry will pass up a unique opportunity to participate in public learning of foreign languages. By the way, isn't it actually against the law in Canada not to include the French? Shouldn't Region 1- (US and Canada only) encoding ALWAYS include French sound and French closed captions- not only as a courtesy and an added value, easy to include-but to comply with Canadian law? Otherwise, a truly great film in a wonderful format!
Rating:
Summary: Why not French
Review: This excellent film, of great interest to students and native speakers of French, does not seem to include options for either French dialogue or French subtitles. This is an unfortunate oversight. What about Canada? Don't native speakers of English have an obligation to respect the bilingual reality of Canada? Both options should be standard under Canadian law.
Rating: 
Summary: A riveting mess
Review: One has to admire the sheer audacity of Johnathon Demme and Oprah for simply attempting to bring Morrison's dense, difficult masterpiece to the screen. Hers was not not a novel that exactly screamed out to be adapted, though individual scenes are certainly cinematic enough. As might be expected, the movie fails as often as it succeeds, though that it succeeds at all is impressive enough in its own right. While Oprah never seems to get entirely into Sethe's mind, she's a strong presence, mournful, dignified and just slightly larger than life. Danny Glover and Kimberly Elise, on the other hand, appear to have directly channelled the characters from the book, so fully do they inhabit their roles. They are superb, even when the script demands them to engage in less than dignified behavior. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of Thandie Newton, as hard as she obviously tries. The one big snag in bringing this to the screen at all, of course, was the title character, who hovers somewhere between ghostliness and the flesh, between retarded devlopment and sinister malevolence. Even an actress of Newton's caliber can do little to bring these divergent elements together without authorial access to her deranged mind. She's reduced to a serious of revolting, spamodic gyrations and infuriating vocal tics. With the central figure thus neutralized, the story ends up feeling draggy and patched together, losing the sense of urgency that propelled the novel to its shattering conclusion. Indeed, that final scene here feels hokey and tired, a bit of feminist supernaturalism that's been tacked on to no appreciable effect. There are enough individual moments here to command attention, and literate film events such as this certainly merit our respect if not our admiration, but a film version of Beloved might have been fated to fail from the get-go.
Rating:
Summary: Painful, but unforgettable!
Review: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, et. al outdid themselves in this deep and moving depiction of ex-slaves. Although I had to turn my head several times from some of the more gruesome scenes, I have to say that this was probably the best movie I've ever watched in my life. I applaud Oprah for bringing this story to life so vividly. It's a film that once you watch it, you'll never forget it. I can understand why some people didn't like it (it's so deep), but it depicts slavery as it was - brutal and suffocating. If I had been through what Oprah's character had, I probably would have done exactly as she did. This movie should have walked away with at least one oscar. It doesn't matter though, because it is a classic, and will be revered as such in the future. The only other movie that comes close to depicting slavery in all its reality is SANKOFA.
|
