Peter Brunette

The first half of The Third Miracle is very good...but the second half of the film, alas, turns into deep TV-mode.

Its evocation of the politics and Zeitgeist of the late '60s is so right on, as we used to say, that it left me stunned.

Far from perfect, and at 122 minutes it's way too long, but after surviving an overly schematic and even hectoring first half, finally delivers the emotional goods.

While the film's mood is dreamy, dark, and gentle, it's also very slow and seldom leads to much of a intellectual or emotional payoff.

One Day in September does "being there" very well -- I just wish director Macdonald had spent a little more time explaining why we should want to be there in the first place.

It's all overblown: too much music, too much cutting, too much zooming, too much computerized special effects, too much clanky symbolism that never works.

An occasionally powerful, always heartfelt drama.

An excellent coming-of-age story that is, for once, and very happily, focussed on a teenage girl.

The human interest story that occupies fully two-thirds of this three hour plus epic is so flat and unconvincing that, for once, you find yourself longing for the disaster footage to start.

While it has its scary moments, and while its central conceit is refreshingly imaginative, there's ultimately not much there there.

If you want to see an object lesson in how brilliant acting can transcend high concept, this movie's for you.

Consistently runs the danger of substituting cool but ultra-hyper, modern special effects for boring old human sentiment.

Flat and thoroughly predictable piece of filmmaking.

Altman is just as nastily misogynistic as ever.

As a primer on the arcana surrounding the profession of personal injury lawyer (more familiarly known as ambulance chaser), A Civil Action is deeply, and even passionately, informative. As a drama and character study, though, it mostly misses the mark.

Compulsively watchable and its occasional lapses into that familiar Polanskian overkill are almost charming.

Wargnier is also a lousy storyteller who seems not to understand how to shape a narrative.

By no means a bad film, but rather a way too over-eager one.

Starts off brilliantly and then gradually -- actually, not so gradually -- peters out.

It's blatantly manipulative pairing of an adorable young boy and a selfish, honesty-challenged older woman [is] so calculating that I could never get emotionally involved.

Breaks no new ground and is tedious in the extreme.

Fancher seems uninterested in developing real suspense, or incapable of it, at least until the end, when there's plenty of it, but artificially imposed.

What makes the film ultimately successful, though, is the outstanding comic talents that inhabit it, especially Zahn and Macy.

Ambitious and perversely fascinating.

It has its moments.

Tries so hard to push all the pre-ordained buttons, and it's so anxious to be liked, nay, adored, that it left me sullen and uninvolved instead.