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The Dead

1987

John Huston

Anjelica Huston, Donal McCann, Helena Carroll, Cathleen Delany ...

7.3

8,150

Drama John Huston's last film is a labor of love at several levels: an adaptation of perhaps one of the greatest pieces of English-language literature by one of Huston's favorite authors, James Joyce; a love letter to the land of his ancestors and the country where his children grew up; and the chance to work with his screenwriter son Tony and his actress daughter Anjelica. The film is delicate and unhurried, detailing a Christmas dinner at ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"'The Dead' is so fine, in unexpected ways, that it almost demands a re-evaluation of Huston's entire body of work (...) The production is close to faultless"	POS
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"One of the great romantic films, fearless in its regard for regret and tendernes (...) a film as quiet and forgiving as the falling snow (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Joseph Jon Lanthier Slant	"Essential for completists and strangely alluring to casual fans, but all too noticeably handicapped (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"'The Dead' sometimes looks a little like an old-style live television broadcast of a stage-play on a single set, but this unitary effect has rigour, clarity and life (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"A beguiling chamber piece that seizes on the conflict between public and private lives"	POS
United States	Sheila Benson Los Angeles Times	"Huston’s presentation of the story, a work which flows like music to its great and enveloping close, is impeccable"	POS
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Radio Times	"It's the quality of the ensemble acting that makes this warm, nostalgic and intimate drama such a memorable and moving experience (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"The results are leagues ahead of Joseph Strick's unfortunate Joyce adaptations, but inevitably leagues behind the original story."	NEU

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