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Blue Car

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Blue Car (2003)

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Reviews Counted:85

Fresh:69

Rotten:16

Average Rating:6.9/10

Consensus: A cautionary tale that rings true.

Runtime: 88 mins

Genre: Dramas

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... 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]

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

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

Director: Karen Moncrieff

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

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Reviews for Blue Car

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Bubble View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 
Reviews
Tomatometer Critic Review Category
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 24 2006 03:58 AM

Time Out

tomato
3/5

Matthew Turner

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 14 2003 08:18 AM

ViewLondon

N/R

Rich Cline

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 24 2002 08:07 AM

Shadows on the Wall

N/R

David Rooney

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Apr., 01 2009 03:15 AM

Variety

N/R

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | May., 26 2006 03:16 AM

Combustible Celluloid

splat
2.5/5

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 06 2005 07:57 PM

Film Threat

tomato
B-

Philip Martin

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 07 2005 09:54 AM

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

tomato

Thomas Delapa

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 Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 09 2004 04:28 PM

Boulder Weekly

tomato

Brian Gibson

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 Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 01 2003 04:59 PM

Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

tomato
B

Dennis Schwartz

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 23 2003 04:38 PM

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

tomato

Betty Jo Tucker

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Sep., 27 2003 06:05 AM

ReelTalk Movie Reviews

tomato
2.5/4

Robert W. Butler

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 Source: | comment Comment | Sep., 12 2003 02:50 PM

Kansas City Star

N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 22 2003 05:24 PM

Deseret News, Salt Lake City

splat
2/4

Phil Villarreal

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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 18 2003 09:05 AM

Arizona Daily Star

tomato
4/4

Joshua Tanzer

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 Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 15 2003 03:56 AM

Offoffoff

tomato
4/5

Jim Lane

Painful to watch, yet it never sinks to melodrama.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 14 2003 12:16 PM

Sacramento News & Review

tomato
3.5/4

Joe Baltake

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 Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 11 2003 03:45 PM

Sacramento Bee

N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 02 2003 05:22 PM

Boston Phoenix

N/R

Cynthia Fuchs

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 02 2003 05:22 PM

PopMatters

splat
2.5/4

Sean Means

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 Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 02 2003 12:04 PM

Salt Lake Tribune

 
 
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