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Movies / On DVD / Snow Falling on Cedars
Snow Falling on Cedars

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Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

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Reviews Counted:88

Fresh:35

Rotten:53

Average Rating:5.2/10

Consensus: Though Snow Falling on Cedars is beautiful to look at, critics say the story becomes dull and tedious to sit through.

Runtime: 2 hrs 8 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Fog as thick and palpable as cotton hangs suspended over San Piedro Island. On the bay, a flickering lantern signals distress from a crippled fishing boat, while elsewhere a freighter lurches... Fog as thick and palpable as cotton hangs suspended over San Piedro Island. On the bay, a flickering lantern signals distress from a crippled fishing boat, while elsewhere a freighter lurches blindly through the chalky mist. By morning, sea and sky are clear, but the tranquil village of fisherman and berry farmers will forever be changed. For one man has lost his life, and another -- a childhood friend -- has been charged with taking it. An investigation is launched. The trial begins.

A reporter covering the trial, Ishmael Chambers, sits in the courtroom, carefully observing the person with whom he shared the rapturous secrets of childhood, the only woman he has ever loved. Hatsue, the defendant's wife. Their tortured relationship will have an unexpected bearing on the trial of Kazuo Miyamoto, which serves to frame Snow Falling On Cedars. -- © 1999 Universal Pictures [More]

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Max Von Sydow, James Cromwell

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Max Von Sydow, James Cromwell, Richard Jenkins, James Rebhorn, Rick Yune, Sam Shepard, Eric Thal, Zeljko Ivanek

Director: Scott Hicks

Director: Scott Hicks
Screenwriter: Ron Bass, Scott Hicks
Producer: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Ronald Bass, Harry J. Ufland
Composer: James Newton Howard

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Snow Falling on Cedars

  • T-Meter Critics
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1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
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Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/17/01
Ben Falk
Ben Falk
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
12/02/02
Geoffrey Macnab
Geoffrey Macnab
Sight and Sound
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
12/10/01
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

A great looking film.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
01/01/00
E! Online
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Intelligent, balanced, and intriguing.

Full Review Source: Radio Free Entertainment | comment Comment
01/01/00
Andrew Manning
Andrew Manning
Radio Free Entertainment

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
01/01/00
Brian Webster
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

Snow Falling on Cedars is very rarely dull, very often poetic.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
01/01/00
Chris Vognar
Chris Vognar
Dallas Morning News

Hicks and cinematographer Robert Richardson give this interdicted love affair an emotional immediacy with the sheer brute force of their images.

Full Review Source: Matinee Magazine | comment Comment
03/23/01
Chuck Rudolph
Chuck Rudolph
Matinee Magazine

On an emotional level, Snow Falling on Cedars struck us deeply.

Full Review Source: CinemaSense.Com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Cornell & Petricelli
Cornell & Petricelli
CinemaSense.Com

A sumptuous, meticulously poetic motion picture that refreshingly tells much of its story through strikingly beautiful visual images, rather than a lot of dialogue.

Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman
DustinPutman.com

Snow Falling on Cedars is a motion picture of great thematic and visual richness.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
02/27/01
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

Prettily photographed yet morbidly gloomy.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jami Bernard
Jami Bernard
New York Daily News

A work of considerable artistry.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jason Anderson
Jason Anderson
eye WEEKLY

It's second to none in its ability to specify a world and immerse us in it.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Jay Carr
Jay Carr
Boston Globe

The film is at its best in courtroom scenes and related sequences, because it allows (the director and screenwriter) to examine race-relations issues both during and after the war.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

... it powerfully re-creates the history, captures the essence of Guterson's characters, and carries us through hypnotized by breathtaking cinematography.

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
12/06/04
Jeffrey Overstreet
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

The best love story of 1999.

Full Review Source: Norman Transcript | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jim Chastain
Jim Chastain
Norman Transcript
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; UK critics are listed first)
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