Stage to Screen

A wonderful story with astounding performances. The film flows seamlessly between the imagination and reality by means of masterful editing, ultimately providing a visual feast for families and lovers of serious films.

Great performances. Poignant plot. For everyone who loves math, this is a movie for someone else. It's a serious love story- love between father and daughter, between sisters, between lovers. It takes you along because it is honest and identifiable.

Atmospheric and absorbing. Thornton crafted an amazing tale of friendship and morality, and he created a powerful character-by far his most impressive. Do you remember when Thornton was an auteur? If not, return often to this movie and 'A Family Thing.'

This movie will rock you with all the power of the original play. It gathers momentum as it builds toward its inevitable conclusion. This story of a daughter who has decided she is through with life, and a mother who must convince her that there is more to live for is at times poignant, disturbing and humorous. Spacek and Bancroft are mezmerizing and have flawless chemistry.

An honest look at the trials and adventures of modern day Christian missionary work.

Mamet's second and last foray into provocative, intriguing movies devoid of profanity. Too bad this one could find neither an audience nor an emotional climax.

Part 'Cheaper by the Dozen,' part 'Christmas with the Kranks,' this dysfunctional family holiday movie is based on a fun concept that would have been a riot on the stage, where the source material comes from, but as a movie it is filled with misdirection, an unfocused script, and not fully developed characters and subplots. Still, there is more than enough funny and touching moments here to make this a holiday movie worth the watch.

Some plays are best left as plays. This movie tries to become substantial, but winds up inconsequential. This story is disjointed, the editing was confusing in places, and much of the acting was more theatrical than cinematic. The feelings of triumph that should have existed in these people's struggles and accomplishment was muddled by too much attention to sexuality. But I am a sucker for third acts and this one scores, but at the same time leaves you wishing it had taken you on the journey that the last act warrants.

Just decide what you want to be and BE IT! An awkward cross between 'The Nutty Professor' and 'Misery'. I'm sure this worked well on stage. Elise and Tyson are severely miscast because they are the only ones trying to lift this above a trite movie full of caricatures.

Uncompromising in its determination to pose a question that will rock your world and then refusing to answer it.
At first this may seem to be a film of conservative, strict letter-philosophy vs. kind, personable spirit-philosophy, and it is. We see one nun who has made it her quest to right the world of wrong by scaring it out of people, and one priest who wants to inspire life into people, and one young naive nun trying to decide WWJD. Shanley openly admitted that this was foremost a peek into the lives of the sisters of charity, and it is, and as a film Deakins does amazing things to visually bring you into that world.
But the story quickly evolves into personal convictions and moral crusades on parade. And once it starts parading, the performances dig in. In 1964, the subject matter of the witch-hunt in this film were unheard of and unthinkable, but especially relevant today, and I'm not just speaking of the question of sexual abuse. The theme of doubt that Flynn speaks on in the beginning and that weaves throughout the film to the final scene seems especially relevant in all manner of current events in post 9/11 America.
The four main leads do a tremendous work here, without a weak link, and the children add a credible dimension that adds to the original play.