Directed By:Peter Bogdanovich
Written By:Carol Heikkinen
The Thing Called Love
Metascore
Mixed or Average
46
User score
Generally Favorable
6.8
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
42% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
32% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
26% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
91
And the movie stands as a fitting memorial to River Phoenix, whose performance lingered in my mind for days after seeing it. [12 Nov 1993]
70
Mathis and Bullock are especially good, and Phoenix and Mulroney, playing out a jealousy-prone friendship as if they were Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms in Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, do a fair job with their roles.
63
The whole movie is something of a country-music clich, and it takes all of your imagination to be as enthusiastic about the characters' singing as they are. But The Thing Called Love is worth a look on the big screen. [16 July 1999]
50
It's a genial and mostly well-crafted picture, if hardly one that breaks new ground. [27 Aug 1993, p.L21]
40
Despite her underwritten character, Mathis easily takes top acting honors with equal parts toughness and tenderness.
30
Embraces its many cliches like they were nuggets of gold.
0
This is stilted stuff. The acting is disjointed, the movie should be subtitled Three Actors in Search of Their Characters. River Phoenix gives a somnambulant impersonation of Christian Slater impersonating Jack Nicholson, and Samantha Mathis spends much of the movie trying to figure out exactly who her character is.
User score
Generally Favorable
50% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
50% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Dec 10, 2023
7
I've never been into country and western movies. It's not the demographic that I have any interest in. However, in my persevering, this is actually a pretty good movie. Why it's a pretty good movie is because Samantha Mathis' character is wonderfully strong-willed. And even though she falls for the wrong guy, she makes her decisions with full responsibility. The other really noticeable distinction is Sandra Bullock really knows how to act. She is really amazing. When you see a lot of films, you can tell when an actor really digs deep into a character and they still own how it's done. The character she plays is nothing like her but she goes in so deep and pulls it off with again a character that is supposed to be ditzy but really does her best not to be. So she is responsible for her actions, too. It's so impressive. Despite the hokey music, it's really worth a watch.
