Norwegian Wood
Red Flag Releasing (RFR) | Release Date: January 6, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
11
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirJan 7, 2012
This is a wonderful, passionate, well-nigh unforgettable adaptation of a great novel about the horrors of love, and the wonderful fact that at least some of us live through it and come back for more. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonFeb 2, 2012
Unabashedly weepy, lyrical in tone, and yet it cuts through the melodrama and stands as an honest depiction of young people who don't know all the answers but have the intellectual capacity to figure them out. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJan 18, 2012
There is something in the nature of director Tran Anh Hung, however, that seems to resist happy endings. In the emotional arc of his art, the high point seems to be bittersweet. It's sweet all the way up, wavers in dread and slides down to doom. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 7, 2012
You can blissfully zone out on the director's pretty pictures, which is a permissible indulgence when the pictures are as delicately alluring as they are here. Also, the performances of Kikuchi and Hatsune are first-rate. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnJan 5, 2012
Admittedly lovely and heartfelt, Norwegian Wood is also hollow. Read full review
65
MovielineStephanie ZacharekJan 6, 2012
A movie like Norwegian Wood is a peculiar case – its intentions are sterling, and it's hard to pinpoint any technical flaws. The problem, maybe, is that it's trying too hard; Tran has such firm control over the storytelling that the resulting picture has no room to breathe. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryJan 6, 2012
At times, the story seems to exist in the instant between wakefulness and sleep, a dreamy state that's also startlingly realistic. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineFernando F. CroceJan 2, 2012
Even if this Haruki Murakami adaptation amounts to a gorgeous but lethargic emo ballad, there's no denying the stately lyricism of its melancholy. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanJan 5, 2012
Fans of the book may resist the efforts of director Tran Anh Hung ("The Scent of Green Papaya"), simply because it would be impossible to capture the essence of Murakami's prose. But this exquisitely filmed, often haunting tragedy is worth taking on its own terms. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungJan 3, 2012
The fact that Norwegian Wood is based on Haruki Murakami's 1987 international best-seller should encourage many viewers to give this long, elegantly shot, sporadically involving Japanese film a try. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearJan 3, 2012
As a chronicle of grief and passion, however, the film is perilously close to being an exercise in tactile but touchy-feely passive-aggression. Read full review
60
EmpireAndrew MaleDec 31, 2011
Murakami's 'unadaptability' for the screen is self-evident to fans of his books, but this is a noble if bleak first stab. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubSam AdamsJan 4, 2012
Tran's visual precision is betrayed by his jumbled script, which fails to impose a cinematic structure on the source material. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenMar 1, 2012
This is the one Murakami work that would seem an ideal candidate for the leap from page to screen. It should be a good movie. But it isn't. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderBen SachsJan 19, 2012
In minimizing the novel's morbidity, Tran also denies its obsessive pull. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithJan 6, 2012
For a sex movie, Norwegian Wood is about as dry as a pocketful of sand. Even for a film set in a land that considers paper folding an exciting activity, this is dull stuff. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJan 5, 2012
The film has the loose narrative structure of a quasi-poetic personal journal that is more a series of reflections than a cohesive story. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangJan 3, 2012
Lovely but listless. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMark HolcombJan 3, 2012
Despite Hung's obvious gifts as a filmmaker, he has ditched this raw immediacy in favor of a drifty, overstuffed, ultimately dull melodrama. Read full review
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