Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Faizel-R I have watched parts of this movie more than once. The movie from start to finish only once. Each story unfolds like a facet on the quilt. Then as the main plot line draws to a conclusion, the thread that binds these stories together resolves each individual facet, to complete the whole.Quilting as I understand it, is bringing many contributions together to create a final product. Each little design tells a story and the master quilter put's these stories together , to convey a theme or message. I have not read the novel, but the movie conveys the message in it's title.The soundtrack is tranquil and adds to the mood.The interplay between Burstyn and Bancroft is a pleasure to watch. Winona is excellent.

sddavis63 Near the beginning of the movie, Finn (played by Winona Ryder) offers this rather drab and depressing observation: "love sometimes dies." Well, sure - and I suppose most of us have been present at its death at some point in our lives, but I don't know that I want to have to be in on the autopsy afterward. Personally, as obviously true as the above statement from Finn may be, I'll still take 1 Corinthians 13:8 - "love never fails." It sounds so much more hopeful! As for this movie, it was just a dismal portrayal of love, marriage - and men, who generally come across here as rather unlovable, adulterous and shallow twits.Much of the movie is told in flashbacks. Finn is a young college student writing a master's thesis who gets engaged and then promptly heads off to stay with her grandma and aunt and their friends for an entire summer while they make her wedding quilt. The movie revolves around the stories of the women's loves - and, for the most part, it ain't a happy story! They've all failed at love in one way or another (or, more usually, the men they loved failed them) and they end up getting poor Finn to the point of wanting to back out on her own wedding.From my perspective none of the performances here were particularly memorable (including Ryder's) and the characters not all that interesting or memorable. The movie ends with what appears to be some attempt at redemption, but you have to be able to stick with it long enough to get there, and then the redemption itself is a sort of qualified one as Finn ends her narration by essentially saying that she and her fiancé Sam might as well go through with this marriage thing because they have as much chance of succeeding as failing, and maybe their love will tip the scales ever so slightly on the "success" side of the scale. Isn't that heartwarming (or pathetic!) 2/10 (and I'm struggling to remember why I decided to go that high!)

gcd70 Women's own film about love and relationships, commitment and infidelity. Jane Anderson's script (from Whitney Otto's novel) tells of student Finn's sumer holiday with her grandmother and great Aunt, where she carefully considers boyfriend Sam's marriage proposal. Here she learns of the lives and loves of the members of the quilting bee that her grandma is part of.Jocelyn Moorhouse takes this project, a personal passion, to heart. She directs with purpose, giving the film a her own special touch. "American Quilt" meanders along as it tells of each woman's past, while Moorhouse ties it all up with a common theme. The pic only loses its way at the end with a dreadfully concocted, sentimental finale.An ensemble cast deliver some enjoyable performances, led by the fresh, attractive Winona Ryder, and supported by Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, Kate Nelligan, Jean Simmons, Samantha Mathis, Lois Smith, Maya Angelou, Kate Capshaw, Melinda Dillon, Dermot Mulroney, Rip Torn, Derrick O'Connor and Loren Dean. Quite an assembly.Aussie director Moorhouse is backed up by compatriot editor Jill Bilcock ("Evil Angels"), who wields the knife astutely, while Janusz Kaminski ("Schindler's List") wields the camera with equal effect. Thomas Newman compliments the film with a pleasing score.Anderson and Moorhouse have focused the pic on the many choices women face, and the disappointments they have in relationships and matters of love. They fail to give the male players any depth, leaving them rather two dimensional. Story poses the question : How do we ever know if we've met the one person we should spend the rest of our lives with, or if we're ever meant to be with just one person at all? An answer though, is not provided, perhaps because, as this film seems to suggest, there is no one answer.Saturday, August 24, 1996 - Waverley Pinewood Cinema

DazedDreamer OK, so I'm not really what I'd consider to be a Winona Rider fan, but I did like this movie (inspite of her). I think Drew Barrymore, or someone of that vein (not as dower as Rider) would have been better in this role honestly. The movie started out kinda slow, but as it went on and as the womens stories unfolded, I began to have a familiar feeling. I realized that this movie has a kinda of "Steel Magnolias" & "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" feeling about it: phenomenal ensemble cast (who more than outweighed the lackluster performance of the "lead"), diverse story lines, and I also like the fact that not every 'story' had a "happy ending" in the traditional way, but that every woman did come to a place where she felt comfortable experiencing her own version (good or bad) of 'where love lives' - be it in a daughter's heart, a lover's arms, a sister's forgiveness, a mother's admission of her faults, a stranger's kiss, or even in your fiancé's van.