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Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
Tomatometer
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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
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
Reviews for Snow Falling on Cedars
Reveals itself with the complexity of a novel, holding its themes up to the light so that first one and then another aspect can be seen.
I found much of it as dispiriting as a museum tour conducted in soporific tones by an overexposed TV pundit.
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