An unconventional film in which traditional story resolutions (plural because several would be needed) are not forthcoming
Comment
07/04/09
Fragments (2009)
43
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:30
Fresh:13
Rotten:17
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Sensitive but not insightful, Fragments pieces an ensemble together in the same way Crash did but without the gravitas.
Synopsis: Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Forest Whitaker, and Josh Hutcherson star as people whose lives change dramatically after they share in a traumatic event at a diner. Based on the novel... [More]
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Forest Whitaker
Director: Rowan Woods
Reviews for Fragments
Top CriticPlaying God, faith and doubt are the central themes of Rowan Woods' Winged Creatures, an engaging but often frustrating film in which beginnings and endings are intertwined
07/04/09
Top CriticIt is intriguing, the premise. But, in fact, you're not given quite enough access to situations or characters to really get an involvement with the film.
07/08/09
Top CriticI'm making it sound very grim and depressing, but miraculously it's not. The interlocking sections are beautifully constructed, and in a large and notable ensemble cast, the performances are vivid and convincing. The children are especially good.
07/17/09
Top CriticConsidering the talent involved in Winged Creatures, it's a pity that the movie never manages to fly above your average Hallmark drama.
07/07/09
Top CriticEach character's unique journey towards processing their shared horrific experience is handled with sensitivity and honesty.
07/08/09
Top CriticAs an examination into the way trauma affects different people it’s intriguing yet at times rather baffling.
07/08/09
Top CriticIt’s a worthy effort, and Woods pieces the parts together with skill and sensitivity. But, perhaps weighed down too heavily by its subject matter, Winged Creatures never takes flight.
07/06/09
Top CriticThere's a miserable sense of a country that's terminally sick in the head and spirit. It's a tiresome idea, no matter how well the actors play it.
07/17/09
Top CriticThe film is quite literally fragmented. Too much story -- and too little about each character.
08/10/09
The grand statement it wants to make plays shallow instead of deep, leaving the film too weak-kneed to carry the weight of its broken world.
08/07/09
Top CriticCrash's Best Picture Oscar win helped jump-start a wave of self-deluded ensemble imitators who seem to feel that overt emotionalism ladled over a loosely connected narrative is a surefire sign of Important Filmmaking. Witness Fragments.
08/04/09
Yet another example of an undeniable truth in drama -- without the right screenplay, the best cast in the world can't make a film worth seeing.
07/30/09
Even as it makes a show of complexity Fragments seems determined to pull together its various story strands.
08/06/09
The hell that Paul Haggis hath wrought grows exponentially by the day.
07/30/09
Fragments is both deeply self-serious and essentially meaningless, the sort of we're-all-connected tragedy in which birds fly free while humans remain stuck in place.
07/31/09
A movie like this tends to come out at least once a year.
06/25/08
The casting directors of Fragments deserve credit for assembling so much talent in one modest movie; if only Rowan Woods, the director, knew what to do with them.
07/31/09
Top CriticLess a movie than a sociology thesis.
08/04/09
The pace is too languid to sustain much viewer concentration, and whatever the characters go through seems only peripherally connected to the shooting in the diner. Close, but no cigar.
07/29/09
Latest News for Fragments
July 30, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Funny People Is Ambitious But Uneven
This week at the movies, we've got the tears of a clown (Funny People, starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen), extra-terrestrial visitors upstairs (Aliens in the Attic, starring... More...
July 29, 2009:
Trailer and pics to 'Fragments,' formerly known as 'Winged Creatues' with Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Forest Whitaker, Embeth Davidtz, Jennifer Hudson, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Josh Hutcherson 
More...
July 07, 2009:
Director Rowan Woods Talks Winged Creatures
It's been a roundabout sort of homecoming for Australian filmmaker Rowan Woods. The director, who made his name with the critically-praised local movies The Boys (1998) and... More...
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