American Pastoral
Lionsgate | Release Date: October 21, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
19
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinOct 20, 2016
Star and first-time director Ewan McGregor, working with screenwriter John Romano, has skillfully reshaped Roth’s tale for more urgent cinematic telling, covering a host of profound themes with disquieting power, reflection and grace. Read full review
70
We Got This Covered Darren RueckerOct 20, 2016
American Pastoral doesn't quite nail its tone, but it's a compelling enough adaptation with a few truly inspired moments. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 20, 2016
Overwrought and disjointed, Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut is surprisingly faithful to aspects of the text but the overall presentation is conventional and disappointing. Read full review
63
ObserverRex ReedOct 19, 2016
American Pastoral tries to be loyal in its adaptation, but the material is film-resistant and flat as cardboard. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 20, 2016
American Pastoral leaves a residue of dread and despair that is oddly in keeping with today’s moment of uncertainty amid an ugly presidential campaign. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsAllen SalkinOct 19, 2016
Alightly boring, but slightly moving film. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 17, 2016
Roth’s material should have been brewed into a larger indictment of authority in freefall—a few incidental Nixon mentions don’t count—and we’re left to suck on actorly handwringing in lieu of larger ideas. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 13, 2016
Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut, in which he also stars, is decently performed and delivers some potent scenes of inter-generational discord between a concerned father and a radicalized daughter who becomes a murderous terrorist. But the filmmaking is prosaic when it should crackle with tension and disruptive undercurrents, Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 13, 2016
Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut eventually finds its own emotional core, zeroing in on the tragedy that befalls a seemingly perfect life once a man’s wilful daughter torpedoes it. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 21, 2016
The film is a dutiful attempt to convey some of the vehemence of the novel – of the counterculture of the 1960s and early ’70s especially – but McGregor, making his directorial debut, lacks the temperament to do this era justice. He’s an innocent bystander in the melee. Read full review
58
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 13, 2016
Many will place blame on Ewan McGregor simply because he may have been ill-prepared to handle such a dense work as his directorial debut. Fault should lie with him as captain, but besides an artificial, mannered feel throughout, my main issue concerns John Romano’s script being so intent on solving the central mystery of Mary’s (Dakota Fanning in adulthood) vanishing. Read full review
50
TheWrapSam AdamsOct 21, 2016
McGregor’s movie is a half-hearted transcript with no heart of its own, one that commits the ultimate sin of making you wonder whether the book it’s based on could possibly be any good in the first place. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 20, 2016
An earnest film, a well-acted film and, despite the presence of a star director, a generous film. As a director, McGregor is good to his co-stars and highlights them throughout. But the energy drops out of the last third of the picture, and takes with it much of its aura of importance. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 20, 2016
American Pastoral is a movie, like the Pulitzer Prize-winning Philip Roth novel on which it is based, dense with passion, politics and historical import. But Ewan McGregor, directing his first feature, never brings the film fully to life. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 20, 2016
American Pastoral may tell the heartbreaking story of Swede Levov, but a firm grasp of who he is and what he means remains maddeningly elusive. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattOct 19, 2016
As hard as they work to add nuance, Connelly is trapped in mad-housewife hysteria, Fanning’s a brat, and McGregor never really rises above a strange, stunned blandness. It’s a noble effort, almost completely lost in translation; give it an American pass. Read full review
42
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 13, 2016
All of “Pastoral’s” problems could have been slightly forgiven if McGregor showed a hint of inspiration behind the camera. Read full review
40
EmpireJohn NugentNov 14, 2016
It’s hard to begrudge such an earnest endeavour, but this is missing the wit, nuance, and insight of a book thought by many – correctly, maybe – to be unadaptable. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 9, 2016
The adaptation, by screenwriter John Romano and McGregor, debuting as a director, roughly sticks to the plot points of the novel but sheds its nuance, and reduces Zuckerman’s role to a mere background information delivery system. Read full review
40
Total FilmMatt MaytumNov 8, 2016
It never quite comes alive, but what disappoints most is the acting: McGregor coasts on his natural charm, but Jennifer Connelly (as Levov’s trophy wife) and Dakota Fanning (as his unruly daughter) are wildly OTT. Read full review
40
VarietyAndrew BarkerSep 13, 2016
Groping for grand tragedy and finding only actorly melodrama, shooting for political contrarianism but landing instead on reactionary conventionalism, American Pastoral is as flat and strangled as its source is furious and expansive. Read full review
40
CineVueBen NicholsonSep 13, 2016
A drab and airless affair, it effectively ignores the substantial political commentaries inherent in its story, and fails to land the emotional punches of the one it's intent on telling. Read full review
40
The GuardianJordan HoffmanSep 13, 2016
What we have on our hands is a dud, but there are a few grace notes that save it from being an unmitigated disaster. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 27, 2016
A new movie based on Roth’s 1997 novel “American Pastoral” offers proof yet again that this writer’s great literary gifts are almost impossible to translate to the screen. Roth is a protean American inner voice. The movies, sad to say, remain better at exteriors. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyOct 21, 2016
A staggering misfire on two discrete levels. As an adaptation of the 1997 novel by Philip Roth, it is lead-footed and inept. The screenplay, by John Romano, treats the narrative in a way that strongly suggests what I hope was a willful misreading of the book. But even considered entirely separately from its source material, American Pastoral is hopelessly weak. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 20, 2016
Ewan McGregor is a versatile and durable actor who has spent a lot of time on film sets, and someday he might become an accomplished filmmaker, but his feature directorial debut is one of the most unfortunate literary adaptations in recent memory. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJake ColeOct 17, 2016
Ewan McGregor’s inert adaption smooths out the Philip Roth novel's eruptions of self-loathing and doubt. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 26, 2016
This is a memory we’re watching, so of course it’s going to be vaguely distorted, its cracks plugged by cliché. Even if you buy that, though, American Pastoral still gives off the strong impression of a rich, complicated story that’s been flattened of its nuance. Read full review
25
ConsequenceBlake GobleOct 21, 2016
The film’s a fundamental fiasco of tone and timing. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 20, 2016
American Pastoral, Roth's magnum opus, needed a film revolutionary on the order of Paul Thomas Anderson, Alejandro González Iñárritu or the Coen brothers to re-imagine it for the screen. McGregor's timid approach does no one any favors, including Roth – and especially the audience. Read full review
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