Beloved
National Broadcasting Company (NBC) | Release Date: October 16, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
11
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Doesn't sanitize its tale of African American loss and survival -- the way Steven Spielberg's “The Color Purple'' did -- but delves deeply, heartbreakingly into an American tragedy. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
This terrifyingly beautiful movie blends metaphor and stark social commentary to achieve a spontaneous grace. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The performances of all the central and secondary characters match the passionate intensity of the film's behind-the-scenes collaborators. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Jonathan Demme's potent adaptation of Morrison's novel may be substantial, but it is also engrossing, a movie that plays at times like a combination of “Gone With The Wind” and “The Exorcist.” Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The film had a curious effect on me. I was sometimes confused about events as they happened, but all the pieces are there, and the film creates an emotional whole. It's more effective when it's complete than during the unfolding experience. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Beloved is for those who want substance from a movie, and don't mind facing uncomfortable truths in the process. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
What is surprising -- remarkable even -- is that Beloved arrives onscreen with a minimum of dull virtue, gagging uplift and slick Hollywood gloss. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsDave Kehr
Has a great deal going for it. [16 October 1998, p. 57]
75
USA TodayMike Clark
Often a cinematic marvel and often the year's most pungent movie medicine, Beloved always feels as if it's carrying the world's weight, and maybe it is. [16 October 1998, p. 7E]
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Beloved is ungainly and hard to follow at times, like the proverbial giant not quite sure how to best use its strength. But that power exists, present and undeniable, and once this film gets its bearings, the unsentimental fierceness of its vision brushes obstacles and quibbles from its path. Read full review
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Powerful, depressing and very, very long. At close to three hours, it virtually enslaves an audience, which may be part of the point. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineSandra Contreras
They've taken material with the power to insinuate itself directly into the realm of the imagination, and made it strangely inert and lifeless. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Winfrey's performance is full of stoic anger, and individual moments have ferocity and pull, yet you're always aware of them as moments. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverPeter Rainer
Beloved tries to be an anthem of the spirit, and that's just about the most difficult--and unfilmable--thing you can attempt in the movies. Demme stretches things out to epic length, but what was really needed here was an epic imagination. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerWalter Addiego
The dramatic payoff is a bit disappointing; the movie is often overwrought; and its sense of its own importance finally wears you down. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Though Beloved sags into repetition after two of its three hours, this beautiful movie is suffused with an intensity that holds our attention for the conclusion. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Demme is understandably reluctant to linger on the horrors of slavery, but it's a dramaturgical mistake. The quick, shocking flashbacks of Sethe's brutalization by her white masters don't do the job--they're horrific, but with a B movie luridness. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
Beloved works on its own but is much enhanced by familiarity with the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In so ambitiously bringing this story to the screen, Ms. Winfrey underscores a favorite, invaluable credo: read the book. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Much of the acting is solid, but earnest performances can't give the picture all the bite and excitement it sorely needs. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Dutiful as it is, Jonathan Demme's Beloved doesn't succeed so much as it abides…it moves in leisurely fits and--unencumbered by style or narrative complexity--never loses its forward momentum. Read full review
40
VarietyTodd McCarthy
At nearly three hours, however, it rather overstays its welcome, trying the patience even as it sustains intrigue regarding its final revelations. Read full review
40
The New YorkerDavid Denby
One of the more high-minded and painful follies of recent years. Read full review
30
SalonCharles Taylor
When the movie isn't hitting us over the head, it's spooning out the material to us like broth to an invalid, drop by flavorless drop. The excruciating pace mirrors the sluggishness of Morrison's sonorous prose. Read full review
20
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Beloved has an almost gut-wrenching quality to it. But the same can't be said for the movie overall--it's a noble, ambitious failure, but a failure nonetheless. Read full review
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