American Pastoral's reviews
Media reviews
Los Angeles Times
?American Pastoral,? based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1997 novel by Philip Roth, proves a haunting, engrossing, often eerily timely adaptation. It?s a movie that makes you think and feel ? and then think some more.
The Hollywood Reporter
"Compressed into under two hours, this examination of family and social upheaval across the mid-century feels more like a check-list of ills than a nuanced and penetrating look at profound seismic shifts in the domestic landscape".
Screen Daily
"Ewan McGregor's directorial debut eventually finds its own emotional core, zeroing in on the tragedy that befalls a seemingly perfect life once a man's wilful daughter torpedoes it".
El País
An acceptable film, painful and somber, with interpretations like that of McGregor himself or Jennifer Connelly that could be improved
The New Yorker
McGregor captures the twilight greatness of Philip Roth's novel, but leaves out its bitter irony, its historical scope and its psychological complexity.
The Playlist
"The basic plotline of 'American Pastoral' should be compelling enough material for even a passably watchable movie. Instead, Romano -the screenwriter- has made some confusing changes from the novel (including the ending) and peppers the narrative with too many period clichés.
Variety
"Ewan McGregor's directorial debut is as flat and strangled as Philip Roth's novel is furious and expansive".
The Guardian
"What we have on our hands is a dud, but there are a few grace notes that save it from being an unmitigated disaster".
El Mundo
McGregor is very short in his attempt to bring to the 'American Pastoral' screen [...] alarming signs of rickets
Collider
McGregor swings for the fences in his portrayal of an anguished father, but the only thing he hits is an obnoxious metaphor about how the 60s killed America.
Festival Internacional de Cine de Lanzarote