How Stella Got Her Groove Back
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: August 14, 1998 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
15
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Dallas ObserverDavid Ehrenstein
This is escapism, pure and simple. And few know the power of such purity better than Terry McMillan. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Stella may be frothy and paper-thin, but it's also another great success for star Angela Bassett, who transforms the film into an infomercial for her considerable abilities. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRussell Smith
The filmmakers go to obvious pains to add a bit of nutritive value to their sweet, frothy confection. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
For once, with How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Hollywood offers a love story that concentrates on the simple nuances of the romance rather than smothering us in an overly- melodramatic narrative featuring old boyfriends, jealousy, and hard-to-swallow misunderstandings. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Whether you regard Stella's getting her groove back as a feminist battle cry or as a silly wish-fulfillment fantasy, the movie delivers guilt-free escapism about pretty people having wicked-hot fun in pretty places. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The movie, adapted by Terry McMillan from her semi-autobiographical novel, is pointedly boundary-breaking in its positive portrayal of a May-September relationship between a younger man and an older woman. Read full review
70
NewsweekAllison Samuels
Rarely have we seen black love be this sensual. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
How Stella Got Her Groove Back tries its best to turn a paperback romance into a relationship worth making a movie about, but fails. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
A glossy, attractive, ultimately empty soap opera that -- despite being based on a true story -- never seems remotely plausible. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This lushly produced, lightweight romance embraces every cliche of the genre without so much as an ironic shrug. Read full review
60
The New YorkerSarah Kerr
This is Harlequin Romance land, and the film squeaks by as long as it's content to watch its lovers throwing off sparks. Read full review
60
Washington PostRita Kempley
Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan, a television veteran making his feature film debut, has fluffed up this undemanding material much as one would a pillow. But pillows have their place and so do girlfriend movies. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The movie meanders on and on, like a bad sexual dream, until you finally wake up mumbling: Stella, please: leave that groove thang alone. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
I'm not denying that a 40-year- old woman might be self-conscious about going around with someone this young. But the subject isn't interesting or provocative enough to sustain an entire movie. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerVenise Wagner
It's a fun movie - full of laughs and touching moments. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
All the comedy, tragedy, and various obstacles to romance seem to have been contrived to divert the story from its tendency toward pulp erotica. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Bassett and Diggs are appealing as the slightly odd couple, but the movie rambles on too long. Read full review
50
Village VoiceGary Dauphin
It's not a very well-made movie, but Stella's many limitations will probably be a side issue among its target audience, irrelevant next to those repeating images of Angela being so rich and beautiful and black. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Buffed and waxed to within an inch of its life, Stella registers as more of a sequence of slick commercials than an actual drama. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Bassett's natural dramatic fierceness, so powerful when incited to action, is at odds with the knee-weakening sexual surrender required by the story. Read full review
40
EmpireAngie Errigo
Director Sullivan lingers too long in every photogenic location and drags out every incident as if he's making six episodes of a not very sparkling serial. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
This upscale Harlequin fantasy film works much the same terrain as Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows, a '50s weepy about an affair between an older woman and a younger man, though without an iota of its wit or intelligence. Read full review
40
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Like "Waiting to Exhale" except more so, film jerks from scene to scene with little sense of rhythm, continuity or dramatic shaping. Read full review
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