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MOVIES / ON DVD / BLUE CAR
Blue Car

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Blue Car (2003)

81%
100%
70%
N/A
N/A
N/A
81 %
Reviews Counted: 85 Fresh: 69  Rotten:16 Average Rating: 6.9/10
 
Consensus: A cautionary tale that rings true.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 88 mins

Synopsis: Agnes Bruckner delivers an impressive, assured performance with BLUE CAR, an affecting coming-of-age drama from Karen Moncrieff. Bruckner is Meg, a beautiful teenager who is desperate to find inspiration and guidance in her otherwise tumultuous life. At an early age, her father left her... Agnes Bruckner delivers an impressive, assured performance with BLUE CAR, an affecting coming-of-age drama from Karen Moncrieff. Bruckner is Meg, a beautiful teenager who is desperate to find inspiration and guidance in her otherwise tumultuous life. At an early age, her father left her family behind. Now, there is only her edgy mother, Diane (Margaret Colin), and her increasingly aloof younger sister, Lily (Regan Arnold). Salvation appears to arrive in the presence of Mr. Auster (David Strathairn), Meg's reserved English teacher who takes an interest in Meg's poetry. It isn't long before both Meg and Mr. Auster begin to take an interest in each other, and as an approaching national poetry competition brings the two closer together, deeper feelings emerge. But Meg eventually learns a painful secret about Mr. Auster, which shatters her impressions of the man, and threatens to push her over the edge forever. Moncrieff, a former television actress turned writer-director, turns her potentially formulaic material into ultimately moving entertainment. This can be attributed to the performances of her lead actors. As the conflicted Meg, Bruckner is a perfect blend of budding sexuality and adolescent bitterness. As her damaged teacher, Strathairn is at turns deeply comforting and crushingly evil. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: David Strathairn, Agnes Bruckner, Margaret Colin, Frances Fisher, Regan Arnold

Director: Karen Moncrieff
Screenwriter: Karen Moncrieff
Producer: Peer J. Oppenheimer, Amy Sommer, David Waters
Composer: Adam Gorgoni

DVD Info

Release:

Feb 10, 2004

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

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06/24/06
Time Out
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3/5

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Full Review | comment Comment
06/14/03
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
N/R

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Full Review | comment Comment
10/24/02
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
N/R

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Full Review | comment Comment
05/26/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
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2.5/5

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Full Review | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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B-

...falters because it hews too closely to the witless cant of the average guy as a potential sex criminal.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/07/05
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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N/A

Though the story is fragile, Bruckner’s superlative acting registers Meg’s feelings with the dead-on accuracy of an emotional geiger counter.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/09/04
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
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N/A

Vivid performances . . . the film's warmly luminous look and the richly rendered view of a troubled but talented teen's struggles with the adult world sustain the film.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/01/03
Brian Gibson
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)
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B

Cuts both ways: the poetry and the acting were hot, the story and the cinematography were not so hot.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/23/03
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
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N/A

I found this movie fascinating -- but not an easy one to sit through. It's seems excruciatingly real.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/27/03
Betty Jo Tucker
ReelTalk Movie Reviews
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2.5/4

At the film's center Bruckner more than holds her own, beautifully capturing the anger, uncertainty and yearnings of an unhappy kid impatient for her 'real' life to begin.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/12/03
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star
N/R

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Full Review | comment Comment
07/22/03
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
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2/4

Moncrieff, though seemingly incapable of lacing a story with surprises, writes snappy dialogue.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/18/03
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
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4/4

The truest depiction I have ever seen on film of how children grow up with divorced parents. Hollywood blockbuster hype notwithstanding, this is actually the must-see movie of the summer.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/15/03
Joshua Tanzer
Offoffoff
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4/5

Painful to watch, yet it never sinks to melodrama.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/14/03
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review
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3.5/4

Moncrieff grabs us with details and dialogue so authentic ... that she often makes us feel as if we're standing on our toes and peering in the window of one of our neighbors.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/11/03
Joe Baltake
Sacramento Bee
N/R

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Full Review | comment Comment
07/02/03
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters
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2.5/4

Blue Car boasts great talent in Bruckner, Straithairn and Moncrieff... [but] that talent isn't enough to get over the obstacles in the movie's second half.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/02/03
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune
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3/5

borrows heavily from her television soap experience but doesn't collapse totally into the banal

Full Review | comment Comment
06/27/03
John A. Nesbit
ToxicUniverse.com
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2/4

...leaves Strathairn's possible predator frustratingly out of focus.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/19/03
Josh Larsen
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)
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