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The Butcher's Wife

Play trailer Poster for The Butcher's Wife PG-13 Released Oct 25, 1991 1h 47m Romance Comedy LGBTQ+ Play Trailer Watchlist
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28% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 30% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
Clairvoyant Marina (Demi Moore) meets New York City butcher Leo Lemke (George Dzundza) while he is visiting her small town in North Carolina. When she then dreams about him, she believes it is a sign that he is her true love. She marries Leo and moves to his working-class neighborhood in New York City. There she meets his neighbors, including shy singer Stella (Mary Steenburgen) and psychiatrist Alex Tremor (Jeff Daniels). Soon Marina begins to wonder if she was wrong about her soul mate.
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The Butcher's Wife

Critics Reviews

View All (18) Critics Reviews
Anthony Lane Independent (UK) The film is such candy-floss that it may not realise what a great screwball clinch it could have staged: the seer versus the shrink, two lovers fighting to get a lead on human behaviour. Jan 4, 2018 Full Review Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Rated: F Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times The Butcher's Wife wants to be a whimsical, heartwarming fantasy, and it almost succeeds, but it is betrayed by its own need to put a Hollywood spin on a plot that doesn't need one. Rated: 2.5/4 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Madeleine Harmsworth Sunday Mirror (UK) An enchanting fairy-story which restores faith in love and happiness. Rated: 3/5 Jul 31, 2024 Full Review Rene Jordan El Nuevo Herald (Miami) The film becomes progressively fatuous... [Full review in Spanish] Dec 8, 2022 Full Review Jeff Simon Buffalo News Demi Moore has never looked lovelier than she does in The Butcher's Wife. Rated: 3.5/4 Apr 9, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (111) audience reviews
John C This is a delightful magical movie. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 09/22/24 Full Review Alyssabeth B It’s a movie about a spiritual delulu who marries the first guy she sees just because he happened to come up on shore just like in a dream she had. She happens to be right about a few things when he takes her back home and everyone thinks she’s clairvoyant. She runs into a terrible, terrible, terrible psychiatrist who seems to have this neighborhood wrapped around his finger, with many, codependent problems and commitment issues. I have to say, though this is kind of the general formula for the 90s. Aside from all that I think it’s a lovely little fairytale! The soundtrack is awesome. The characters are so over the top. It’s funny and it almost seems like it’s a play. If you look at it for what it….is a fairytale film…it’s actually kind of awesome. as for the acting Demi Moore is just so young in her 20s and her accents all over the place it’s kind of cold, I’m surprised I didn’t hear more people making fun of this movie in the 90s as much as they did dances with wolves. But again part of the charm… I honestly think the best actor in this film is in fact the butcher. He was the most believable character surrounded by some, at the time, staple stars Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 09/12/24 Full Review Blu B It's not good but it's never really boring and it does have a certain degree of charm to it that helps quite a bit. The acting, music, and cinematography is all pretty ok here. Nothing is really exceptional about it. The acting and music very much has a Hallmark style tone to it all. It's very naive at times. And to it's credit that helps. The problem here is the editing isn't good and the humor just falls flat constantly. This is like a screwball rom com mixed with a fantasy good witch type of thing. But it never can take all these side character story lines and the two romances and make them work together in a cohesive manner. And the ending just feels very anticlimatic with no real tension. Everything just feels harmless kind of. It also never really explains Moore's powers which is fine but it feels like it goes nowhere kind of and a bit lazy. Again it's not boring and has charm to it all but it just feels like stuff happens once she arrives in NYC and is very jumpy the longer it goes. I will say the best moments are Moore and Daniels together. More so Daniels makes Moore a better actress in the scenes. It's just he's not given enough to work with when he gets momentum going and it jumps around so much he ends up being just alright. Unless your a die hard Daniels fan I'd say skip this for most people. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 08/13/24 Full Review Richard W Don't let all the haters turn you off of this little gem ,great ,great movie I laughed so hard ,it's really cute ,a must see ,have zero understanding, how this movie could have such a low rating I watch it every couple of years Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/22/24 Full Review Steve D Paper thin in character and story. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member I signed up for an account just to tell you all this is actually a good ass movie, the haters are wrong Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Butcher's Wife

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The Butcher's Wife

The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Commit to This Affair! The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Commit to This Affair! 2:13 The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - I Got This Feeling for You The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - I Got This Feeling for You 2:12 The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Dowdy and Plain The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Dowdy and Plain 2:13 The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Countertransference The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Countertransference 2:13 The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - The Split-Apart Story The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - The Split-Apart Story 2:11 The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Marina Reads Alex The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Marina Reads Alex 2:13 The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Leo Falls in Love The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Leo Falls in Love 2:13 The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Life is Messy! The Butcher's Wife: Official Clip - Life is Messy! 2:13 View more videos
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Movie Info

Synopsis Clairvoyant Marina (Demi Moore) meets New York City butcher Leo Lemke (George Dzundza) while he is visiting her small town in North Carolina. When she then dreams about him, she believes it is a sign that he is her true love. She marries Leo and moves to his working-class neighborhood in New York City. There she meets his neighbors, including shy singer Stella (Mary Steenburgen) and psychiatrist Alex Tremor (Jeff Daniels). Soon Marina begins to wonder if she was wrong about her soul mate.
Director
Terry Hughes
Producer
Wallis Nicita, Lauren Lloyd
Screenwriter
Ezra Litwak, Marjorie Schwartz
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Production Co
Paramount Pictures
Rating
PG-13
Genre
Romance, Comedy, LGBTQ+
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 25, 1991, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 21, 2010
Box Office (Gross USA)
$8.9M
Runtime
1h 47m
Sound Mix
Surround
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