100
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
Qualifies as director Giuseppe Tornatore's second full-fledged masterpiece. His first: "Cinema Paradiso."
Malena (Malèna)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Italy,
- United States
- 2000
- · 108m
Director
Giuseppe Tornatore
Cast
Monica Bellucci,
Giuseppe Sulfaro,
Luciano Federico,
Matilde Piana,
Pietro Notarianni,
Gaetano Aronica
Genre
Drama
Men love her, women hate her—this is the story of Malena, a small-town Italian schoolteacher oblivious to her good-looks, and Renato, the young man who grows up transfixed by the idea of her. The film swings between themes of comedy, nostalgia, and bittersweet regret.
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What are critics saying?
90
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Malena the film is as beautiful and seductive as its heroine, with its ravishing Lajos Koltai cinematography and sweepingly romantic Ennio Morricone score.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey
Gives audiences something more than just a heart-stopping beauty to contemplate.
70
Village Voice by Dennis Lim
A nostalgic coming-of-age sex comedy tastefully lecherous enough to indicate that its intended demographic is several decades past puberty.
70
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
What begins as a blushing, priapic opera buffa about coming of age turns into a verismo shocker, before softening into something mellower.
70
TV Guide Magazine by Frank Lovece
It differs from American films about the period in its evocation of day-to-day passion. The power of beauty is often dealt with in films, but not so often its powerful curse.
70
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Nothing new here except model-turned-actress Bellucci. To call her noteworthy would be an understatement.
67
Portland Oregonian by Kim Morgan
Intriguing, containing a truthful kernel of sweetness, rot and brutality that will shock many.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
You wish that Malena's inner life had been given as much accent as her outer charms.
63
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Striking photography, period detail, screen-filling crowd scenes, and veteran composer Morricone's score make this one worth seeing, but the sheer nastiness of the town's people drags it down.
50
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Somewhere in writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore's overstyled movie, about a 12-year-old boy (Sulfaro) during the Italian fascist period who has the hots for a mistreated war widow (Belluci), is a pretty good short story about the fickleness of community and the cruelty of gossip struggling to get out.
50
USA Today by Mike Clark
There's definitely some paradiso in watching Malena walking, but not enough to sustain almost two hours of cinema.
10
Film.com by Henry Cabot Beck
In the end, Malena is an unlikable and foul farce, unworthy of Tornatore's previously gentle touch.
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