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Movies / On DVD / Chelsea Walls
Chelsea Walls

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Chelsea Walls (2002)

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Reviews Counted:46

Fresh:12

Rotten:34

Average Rating:4.1/10

Consensus: The meandering Chelsea Walls is more pretentious than poetic.

Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: The Chelsea Hotel echoes with loneliness, residents moving in and out, dreaming behind closed doors and searching for someone -- or something -- that got away. The Chelsea Hotel used to be grand,... The Chelsea Hotel echoes with loneliness, residents moving in and out, dreaming behind closed doors and searching for someone -- or something -- that got away. The Chelsea Hotel used to be grand, the place to live for New York City artists. Mark Twain, Thomas Wolfe, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix…they all passed through the hotel’s halls. Now, the iron façade has become rusty and the artists in residence are tarnished, too. Still, new dreamers come every day, hoping to be inspired by the ghosts of the past. Grace (Uma Thurman) and Audrey (Rosaria Dawson) are young poets, who constantly struggle with issues of art and love. Never learning from experience, they always seem to let the wrong men into their hearts. Grace should love Frank (Vincent D’Onofrio), an artist who respects and understands her. But she still responds to the siren call of the lover who went to Hollywood. Similarly, Audrey lets impenetrable Val (Mark Webber) back into her life, knowing he will go off with Crutches (Kevin Corrigan) to do something that could take him away from her forever. Down the hall, Bud (Kris Kristofferson) is a writer who faces more endings than beginnings. His pretends that his wife, Greta, (Tuesday Weld) and his mistress, Mary, (Natasha Richardson) are his muses. But his eight-hundred page book is really fueled by an endless supply of alcohol. A lion who is losing his roar, Bud is out of time. For every worn out writer, there are two new musicians who come to town. Ross (Steve Zahn) and Terry (Robert Sean Leonard) have just driven in from Minnesota, eager to experience the sights and sounds of the Chelsea Hotel. These new hotel residents, young and full of expectations, mingle with the old hotel ghosts, ultimately becoming interchangeable. They form a community, linked by their dreams, their isolation, and their pain. The Chelsea Hotel never really leaves the people who live there, nor do they ever really leave it. -- © 2002 Lions Gate Films [More]

Starring: Uma Thurman, Kris Kristofferson, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D'Onofrio

Starring: Uma Thurman, Kris Kristofferson, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Robert Sean Leonard, Natasha Richardson, Mark Webber, Tuesday Weld, Steve Zahn, Kevin Corrigan, Frank Whaley, Guillermo Diaz, Paz de la Huerta

Director: Ethan Hawke

Director: Ethan Hawke
Screenwriter: Nicole Burdette
Producer: Gary Winick, Alexis Alexanian, Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler
Studio: Lions Gate Films

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Reviews for Chelsea Walls

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1 - 20 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
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The film apparently takes place in a fantasy world where people in hotel hallways recite poetry in voice-over instead of speaking to each other.

Full Review Source: All Movie Guide | comment Comment
02/02/03
Josh Ralske
Josh Ralske
All Movie Guide

A free-for-all of half-baked thoughts, clumsily used visual tricks and self-indulgent actor moments.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
10/23/02
Kevin N. Laforest
Kevin N. Laforest
Apollo Guide

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Blunt Review | comment Comment
04/19/02
Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt
Blunt Review

Were Dylan Thomas alive to witness first-time director Ethan Hawke's strained Chelsea Walls, he might have been tempted to change his landmark poem to, 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Theatre.'

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
05/24/02
Erin Meister
Erin Meister
Boston Globe
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
06/01/02
Boston Phoenix

Like a bad improvisation exercise, the superficially written characters ramble on tediously about their lives, loves and the art they're struggling to create.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
04/19/02
Ed Scheid
Ed Scheid
Boxoffice Magazine

Movies like this do not grab you by the throat. You have to be receptive.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
06/07/02
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It is dead on the inside, never quite achieving the movements and emotional solidity the material demands.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
07/20/02
Chicago Tribune

This insufferable movie is meant to make you think about existential suffering. Instead, it'll only put you to sleep.

Full Review Source: Citysearch | comment Comment
04/19/02
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Citysearch

Reeks with phony posturing and lot of talking without really saying anything.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
05/10/02
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Deadly dull, pointless meditation on losers in a gone-to-seed hotel.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
04/18/02
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

There is a certain sense of experimentation and improvisation to this film that may not always work, but it is nevertheless compelling.

Full Review Source: Countingdown.com | comment Comment
04/19/02
Larry Carroll
Larry Carroll
Countingdown.com

The cinematic equivalent of patronizing a bar favored by pretentious, untalented artistes who enjoy moaning about their cruel fate.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
05/09/02
Philip Wuntch
Philip Wuntch
Dallas Morning News
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
08/09/02
Robert Denerstein
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News

Hawke’s film, a boring, pretentious waste of nearly two hours, doesn’t tell you anything except that the Chelsea Hotel today is populated by whiny, pathetic, starving and untalented artistes.

Full Review Source: Des Moines Register | comment Comment
06/06/02
Jeffrey Bruner
Jeffrey Bruner
Des Moines Register

Hawke's lofty goal of painting the personalities of the poetry-spewing inhabitants gives ways to wannabe Beatnik meandering.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
04/19/02
E! Online

I liked this film a lot...

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
04/29/02
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper

Pretentious navel-gazing hoo-hah.

comment Comment
04/17/05
Scott Weinberg
Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com

No review available.

comment Comment
06/26/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Entertainment Insiders | comment Comment
09/05/03
Jonathan W. Hickman
Jonathan W. Hickman
Entertainment Insiders
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source; UK critics are listed first)
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