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Laurel Canyon

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Laurel Canyon (2003)

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67 %
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Reviews Counted:107

Fresh:72

Rotten:35

Average Rating:6.4/10

Consensus: Though the movie itself is flawed, McDormand is fantastic as Jane.

Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $3,596,939

Synopsis: Laurel Canyon is a street that runs through the heart of the Hollywood Hills, joining the middle-class, stolid environs of the San Fernando Valley to the heart of the city of Los Angeles. The... Laurel Canyon is a street that runs through the heart of the Hollywood Hills, joining the middle-class, stolid environs of the San Fernando Valley to the heart of the city of Los Angeles. The canyon is notable for its varied residents through the years and has served, and continues to, as the home to many rock stars, musicians, performers, producers, and the like. Among its current residents are Jane (Frances McDormand), a legendary record producer, currently producing an album for a British band whose lead singer Ian (Allesandro Nivola) is her much younger lover. Jane and the band are creating the album in her Laurel Canyon house where she has a recording studio. Jane’s son Sam (Christian Bale) and his fiancée Alex (Kate Beckinsale) are both recent graduates of Harvard medical school. Conservative, solid and serious, the couple find it necessary to move to Los Angeles to complete their studies: Sam is completing his Residency at the renowned Hausman Neuropsychiatric Institute, while Alex is intent on completing her dissertation on Drosophilia Genomics. Jane has offered her Laurel Canyon home for them to stay in, promising that it will be vacant. But when Sam and Alex arrive Jane and the Band are still working in Jane’s home recording studio to complete the album. Sam and Alex begrudgingly stay at Jane’s house until they can find an alternative place to live. Once in the house, however, things begin to slowly unravel. Alex’s attraction to Jane’s and Ian’s freewheeling lifestyle and Sam’s hesitancy about renewing a relationship with his wayward mother as well as his growing attraction to fellow medical resident Sara (Natascha McElhone) slowly fill the house with tension and doubt... -- © 2002 Sony Pictures Classics [More]

Starring: Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone

Starring: Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone, Alessandro Nivola, Melissa De Sousa

Director: Lisa Cholodenko

Director: Lisa Cholodenko
Screenwriter: Lisa Cholodenko
Producer: Susan A. Stover, Jeff Levy-Hinte
Composer: Craig Wedren
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

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Reviews for Laurel Canyon

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1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; Australian critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
10/18/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
07/16/03
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
07/02/03
Boston Phoenix
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
01/15/04
Guardian [UK]
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N/R

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Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
04/11/03
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
N/R

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Full Review Source: Zap2it.com | comment Comment
02/25/04
Lori Allen
Lori Allen
Zap2it.com
N/R

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Full Review Source: Nitrate Online | comment Comment
03/14/03
Nick Schager
Nick Schager
Nitrate Online
N/R

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Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
09/07/03
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

The devices that run this strained comedy are as shallow as some of the residents in the titular Hollywood neighborhood.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
03/07/03
E! Online
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Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
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Full Review Source: Sunday Times (Australia) | comment Comment
10/27/03
Sunday Times (Australia)
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No matter how many times she pushes her specs up her nose Beckinsale is never going to be believable as a nerd. Bale as a psychiatrist: it’s easier to envisage him as Batman.

Full Review Source: Teletext | comment Comment
11/14/03
Annette Dasey
Annette Dasey
Teletext

Self-discovery seems to be the goal, but the revelations hardly seem worth the work.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
04/18/03
Bill Muller
Bill Muller
Arizona Republic

If the booze-swilling, oversexed evil sister of McDormand’s Almost Famous matron were to make her own movie, it might look something like Laurel Canyon.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
02/09/03
Chuck Rudolph
Chuck Rudolph
Slant Magazine

By the time Laurel Canyon closes, we’re left with a number of dangling subplots, lots of questions and two hideously unbelievable reconciliations.

Full Review Source: Reno Gazette-Journal | comment Comment
05/02/03
Forrest Hartman
Forrest Hartman
Reno Gazette-Journal

The chemistry between McDormand, Ian and goody-two-shoes Alex is soggy rather than sexy.

Full Review Source: Citysearch | comment Comment
03/06/03
J. C. Farrow
J. C. Farrow
Citysearch

The spectacle of pretty people floating languidly across the screen notwithstanding, Laurel Canyon is short on conviction and long on contrivance.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
03/04/03
J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
Village Voice

Comes across pretty much as a pretentious soap opera -- a movie that wants the audience to believe it has more to say about life than the usual melodrama.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
03/01/03
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

More obvious and superficial with, except for Ms. McDormand, rather soapy and cartoonish elements.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
03/27/03
Jane Sumner
Jane Sumner
Dallas Morning News
 
 
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