Clara's Heart

Directed by Robert Mulligan in an unapologetically sentimental style, Clara's Heart succeeds in tugging the heartstrings only when Clara herself is on screen. Read full review

Mulligan's adaptation of Joseph Olshan's novel doesn't merely flirt with pathos, it positively marries it. Read full review

Whoopi Goldberg gives a first-rate performance in Clara's Heart, enough to atone for the sins of her Fatal Beauty period. But it's nifty work in a lost cause. The movie is sickly sweet, shot through with the kind of confectioner's sentiment that Hollywood used to crank out on assembly lines until the formula slid into disuse. [21 Oct 1988, p.E10]

The problem with Clara's Heart is that it grows increasingly sentimental and improbable. [16 Nov 1988, p.D05]