The Caveman's Valentine

The Caveman's Valentine (2001)

  • 45% of critics liked it
    (82 reviews)

  • 52% of users liked it
    (6,083 ratings)

A man struggles back from madness to avenge the death of someone he knew in an intelligent thriller based on the acclaimed novel by George Dawes Green. Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson) once had a career as an acclaimed concert pianist, a position at the Juilliard School of Music, and a loving… More

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R,
Directed By
Written By
George Dawes Green
Genres
Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense
In Theaters
Mar 2, 2001 Wide
Universal Pictures

Critic Reviews

  • Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News

    Lemmons creates mesmerizing passages, but she can't bring this one to a fulfilling crescendo.

  • Ray Conlogue, Globe and Mail

    This is a commercial film with limited ambitions.

  • Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee

    Unlike most movies these days, which have very little going on inside them so as not to confuse the audience, The Caveman's Valentine roils with both narrative and cinematic ideas.

  • Peter Howell, Toronto Star

    Burdened by sloppy plot turns and unbelievable characters.

  • Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

    Jackson's convincing portrayal of an untethered psyche scrambling for purchase on the slippery slope of sanity and Lemmons's arresting cinematic vision, in which we see the world through the eyes of a man continually descending into ...madness, is enough.

Read all 16 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Melvin W


    Romulus Ledbetter: I got freezing temperatures all over my brain. And I got legends of angels up there! Like little moths, and they'll beat the hell out of you with their wings!  "Inside a tortured mind... The clues that lead to a killer." This weird crime thriller is… More

  • Aaron N


    Romulus Ledbetter: Sheila, what are you doing here? Sheila: Watching you make a fool of yourself. What are YOU doing here? Romulus Ledbetter: I have to prove Leppenraub is guilty. Sheila: Prove to who? Romulus Ledbetter: To the world. To... to Lulu. Sheila: Lulu needs a… More

  • Lady D


    I very much like the idea of this film, it plays on a different perspective and shows graphically the thoughts of SLJ's character through the way he sees it. I don?t, however, think the storyline was adequate enough to suit the plot. SLJ acted ok at times and at others… More

  • vieras e


    Quite curious, but is clearly missing something.

  • Naughtia N


    It was very weird seeing Samuel L. Jackson with big beard and long dreadlocks. Jackson stars as a genius and educated musician who gets very affected by hallucinations and paranoia, he ends up living in a cave and one morning he finds a dead body outside his cave and panics. The… More

Read all 6 featured audience ratings

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Cast

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Trailers & Clips