Sweet November
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: February 16, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
27
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
9
Negative:
18
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Neither a masterpiece nor a remake of one, but its wistfulness is infectious, and its melancholy mood lingers for days. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeJay Carr
It's a small film, and a far from perfect one, but it allows her (Theron) to extend her range as no previous role has done.
63
Chicago TribuneLoren King
Nice to look at but too calculated and clichéd to resonate beyond its surface slickness.
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Anyone in the market for a bittersweet romantic comedy could do worse. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
If the movie works on its own insipid level, it's because of high-gear star power -- 50 times the captivator Dennis ever was, Theron is terrific at creating adorable intimacy with little help from the script or director and exudes more guileless élan than any of the film's many puppies. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
He's (Reeves) not as good as he was playing a menacing Georgia wife-beater in The Gift, but he's an awfully convincing jerk. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
The sort of movie that seems to exist for no good reason except to keep the studio's pipeline filled with filmed product.
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The sweetest thing about Sweet November (a remake of the 1968 movie) is the on-screen magic between Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves. But that's pretty much where the magic ends. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
It's classic movie manipulation gone amok. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Does neither of its leads any favors. But they fill their roles admirably, and then some. Time and again, in a movie that repeatedly threatens mawkishness, you can sense them gently steering away just in the nick of time. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
It's all corny and contrived and usually sensitive. The filmmakers even dare to show the effects of illness--a subject frequently glamorized to the point of being insulting--in a love scene of rare honesty. Read full review
40
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A contrived but entirely workable premise is given a well-tooled treatment in Sweet November, a femme-slanted doomed romance with a heavily calculated feel to it. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
If Sweet November were a puppy, it would have rabies. Read full review
38
USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna
November is when we eat turkey, and Sweet November is pretty much a fat, juicy gobbler passed off as Valentine's Day date bait. Read full review
30
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
This is one of those movies in which there are only two types of people: officious yuppie pricks, and the beautiful folks who stop and smell the daisies. What keeps it (barely) from being completely intolerable is Keanu Reeves' hilariously awful lead performance. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
A film that means to be seductive but merely progresses from the contrived to the manipulative. Read full review
30
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This whimsical weeper gets off to an awkward start and never finds its footing. Read full review
30
Film.comRobert Horton
Charlize Theron has charm and skill, but no actress could survive this role, which has the gravity and verisimilitude of a sketch from a late-sixties Nancy Sinatra TV special. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Passes off pathological behavior as romantic bliss. It's about two sick and twisted people playing mind games and calling it love. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A very low grade romantic drama indeed, a love story with all the life and death intensity of a heat rash. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
A hellacious stew of romance and tragedy that gives the words "screwball" and "pathos" a bad name. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldCurtis Morgan
The enigma of Reeves, sort of a human black hole on screen, works well in "The Matrix" but it drains the life from weepy romance. Read full review
20
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The film's last half-hour -- or do I mean its final two weeks? -- is meant to keep the audience sniffling and sobbing uncontrollably, but the only thing likely to elicit tears is the sight of Mr. Reeves dressed in a white dinner jacket crooning "Time After Time." Read full review
20
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A front-end collision of a romance. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyHazel-Dawn Dumpert
This feeble remake offers little more than two pretty and willing leads who nonetheless can't hide their embarrassment over being set up as distractions to hide the film's thorough lack of coherence and appeal. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Get out your handkerchiefs. No, scratch that -- get out a pair of windshield wipers and staple them to your brow. Perhaps they'll obscure the screen. Read full review
20
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Beware all male viewers who enter here, you are in chick-movie hell. Read full review
20
Dallas ObserverStaff (Not credited)
It could be said that Reeves is one of the great manifestations of the mysteriousness of stardom. He gives the worst performance in Sweet November, and he's the best thing about it. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Sara is supposed to be an adorable screwball with a fatal disease. Ms. Theron certainly gets the adorable right. With a comic style that's close to unerring, she not only deserves better than this junk but the very best.
10
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Shamelessly manipulative in a crude, bullying way. Read full review
More From This Movie

27 Critic Reviews

7.3 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL