Swept Away
Screen Gems | Release Date: October 11, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
18
METASCORE
Overwhelming dislike based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
4
Negative:
21
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Ritchie made a movie that never pretends to be more than a guilty pleasure of soft-core kitsch, and Madonna and Giannini (son of Giancarlo, costar of the original) achieve a lively S&M chemistry. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
At its best, Swept Away is like a scrapbook of postcards starring two lovebirds with great tans. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Madonna herself is not so much terrible as merely uninvolving. She's quite credible as the harpy of the first act, but she can't pull off the transition and the spark that makes a movie star instantly sympathetic. Read full review
40
VarietyDennis Harvey
A simple misfire rather than a world-class fiasco. This misguided attempt to remake Lina Wertmuller's corrosive 1974 satire as a wistful romance is only unintentionally funny in the last reel. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Schizoid romantic comedy -- The first half of the movie is full of broad but capable comedy, but the original film's sexual and class politics are clumsily handled, and the mood turns serious with all the subtlety of a falling guillotine blade. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The effectiveness of this kind of issue-driven give and take relies heavily on casting, and Ritchie puts himself at a disadvantage: Madonna looks terrific in a bikini but she can't act, and the younger Giannini is stunt casting. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
One hopes that this is Hollywood's last go-round with Swept Away. Watching this fiasco, I kept having nightmares about a possible cartoon version, co-starring Cruella de Vil and Shrek. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A bad movie. No amount of perfume sprayed on talk show audiences by Madonna and her husband can eliminate the stench of failure emanating from this motion picture. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The fact that Swept Away got made at all implies there simply is no dissuading Madonna from her movie-star aspirations. Her tenacity is admirable, but it's also block-headed. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Madonna may be better in this film than she's been in some of her recent endeavors, especially when she stops screeching her lines, but she's done herself no favors with her choice of material. Read full review
30
Rolling StonePeter Travers
For starters, it blows. Madonna continues to mistake a knack for striking poses with the interpretive skill of a real actor. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
No less laughable is the ending, where Ritchie neatly reflects today's prevailing attitude -- that audiences can't be trusted to handle a hint of ambiguity, but can live happily with flat-out stupidity. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A deserted island movie during which I desperately wished the characters had chosen one movie to take along if they were stranded on a deserted island, and were showing it to us instead of this one. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The junior Giannini, who has inherited Giancarlo's handsome looks, portrays his mercurial character with energy and flair. Madonna doesn't. Indeed, it's hard to remember the last time a certified celebrity gave a performance so monotonous, unimaginative, and all-around tiresome to watch. Read full review
20
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Merely an indulgent vehicle for Mrs. Ritchie -- and Madonna is so spectacularly convincing as a hateful, self-absorbed, nouveau riche ogress that her character's third-act transformation is as preposterous as her overmuscled physique. Read full review
20
Washington PostDesson Thomson
At no point should anyone mistake this for an actual movie. This is an extended beach video that will leave no one swept away. Read full review
20
The New York TimesDana Stevens
There is no credible feeling here, no comedy, no eroticism. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyPaul Malcolm
Suggests that we're supposed to take this love story as something more than farce. Please. Tom Hanks fucking that volleyball would have been more convincing. Read full review
20
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Ritchie's frivolous comedy tries to have it both ways, thinning out the material for mass consumption while still sticking to the script -- an unstable alchemy that backfires horribly. Read full review
10
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Isn't dubbed. But it sure feels like it. The characters open their mouths and their lips don't seem to be shaping the right words -- you can't believe any human beings would ever utter such ludicrous dialogue, with so little conviction. Read full review
10
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The film turns out to have nothing going for it at all, except a small charge for soul-deep Madonna haters. Read full review
10
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
If you were expecting Ritchie to discover something in Madonna that no one else has, something like, say, acting talent, forget it. Read full review
10
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
It certainly didn't take long for Madonna to ruin husband Guy Ritchie's career. Read full review
10
NewsweekJeff Giles
It stinks. The movie is so inert -- and Madonna’s performance so starkly amateurish -- that it’s impossible to take it seriously as an allegory about class and gender.
0
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Even camp status eludes this tepid and misguided picture. Read full review
0
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Not as bad as rumor would have it. It's worse. Read full review
0
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
A shrill, amateurish two-character play that demeans women and leaves men with the quaint notion that the best way to a woman's heart is through enslavement. Read full review
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