Home Room (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:11
Rotten:10
Average Rating:5.5/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 12 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In the aftermath of a small town high school shooting, nine are killed and one, popular Deanna (Erika Christensen), is wounded. As students and the victims' relatives try to make sense of the... [More]
Starring: Busy Philipps, Erika Christensen, Victor Garber, Ken Jenkins
Director: Paul F. Ryan
Reviews for Home Room
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 4/5 |
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3.5/5 |
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3/4 |
Though the film is overlong (it runs over two hours), it's never boring - mainly due to a pair of fantastic lead performances. Full Review |
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4/5 |
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The relationship that Deanna and Alicia forge is fascinating...as it allows for a genuine search for truth instead of something that is forced or contrived. Full Review |
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Thanks to Philipps's explosive need and Christensen's struggling vulnerability, we see the human costs inherent in tragedy once the TV trucks have left and only the haunting remains. Full Review |
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 C- |
Weighted by good intentions, Ryan turns a potentially riveting story of two lost souls shaken by trauma into a sappy teen drama. Full Review |
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2.5/4 |
Alicia and Deanna's journey toward friendship, or at least a truer understanding, is moving. Full Review |
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In the midst of this didactic, self-conscious movie about a high school shooting comes an extraordinary and intense performance by a young actress named Busy Philipps, which elevates the whole picture. Full Review |
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Dismal but not disheartening, this tale of picking up the pieces is as cutting as those pieces can be and as satisfying as cleaning up the mess. Full Review |
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2/4 |
Overall, it plays like the world's longest -- over two hours -- after-school special. Full Review |
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2/4 |
Too often crosses the line between good melodrama and rank cliché. Full Review |
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4/10 |
Its noble intentions are undermined by syrupy, movie-of- the-week direction. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
A powerful movie that loses some of its momentum by touching on too many stories. It's not always easy to watch, but it's thought provoking. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Ryan's tough-minded little movie avoids any sort of sentimentality; nothing warm and fuzzy here, just honest emotions from two excellent young actresses. Full Review |
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2/5 |
At 133 minutes, Home Room is sluggishly paced and refuses to lighten up for even a second. Full Review |
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2/5 |
With an unconscionably long running time of 2 hours and 11 minutes for what is essentially a two-hander between Philipps and Christensen, Home Room feels like detention -- without the possibility of recess. Full Review |
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1.5/4 |
Overwrought, way too long, and rife with emotional implausibilities, the film comes very close to being an affront to the memory of the victims of these real-life catastrophes, because very little in it comes very close to being real. Full Review |
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At times, Home Room threatens to become a Driving Miss Daisy for the Clueless set. Full Review |
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