Rotten Tomatoes

Movies / TV

    Celebrity

      No Results Found

       View All       Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

      The Designated Mourner

      R 1997 1h 34m Drama List
      65% 17 Reviews Tomatometer 73% 50+ Ratings Audience Score In a dystopian society where intellectuals are executed by the repressive, pseudo-fascist government, Jack (Mike Nichols) has relinquished his culture and curiosity, while his wife, Judy (Miranda Richardson), and especially her surly father, Howard (David De Keyser), are far more reluctant. First Howard, and then Judy, are rounded up and eventually killed by the government -- and Jack, trying to recover from a mental collapse as a result, is left alone with his guilt. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (4) audience reviews
      Audience Member Like a Costa-Gravas thriller done strictly with monologues. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member Wonderful adaptation of genius Wallace Shawn's play, nimbly directed by David Hare. Mike Nichols is surprisingly good as Jack. Miranda Richardson is riveting, as usual. Wallace Shawn may be the most criminally unappreciated writer in America, next to me. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member If you are in the mood for it...you often aren't Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member Three people sit at a table and deliver a number of monologues that meld into a tale of oppression and fascism. That's what happens in David Hare's "The Designated Mourner". The filmed monologue is not a new idea; Spalding Gray did it quite successfully in "Monster in a Box" and "Swimming to Cambodia". This time around, though, the script (by Wallace Shawn, of "My Dinner With Andre") probably works better as a stage play. If today's attention-deficient audience can get past this initial concept, they'll find a nicely layered story. At the table are Jack (Mike Nichols), his wife Judy (Miranda Richardson), and her father Howard (David de Keyser). Howard is an intellectual and a poet who finds himself an enemy of the (unknown) state. Judy feels a duty to her father and the fight against the increasingly dangerous government. Jack struggles with the intellectualism he feels he's supposed to have and the actual state of his nature - in his own words, he's a "low-brow". It's Jack's story, and by the end of it - after the intellectually elite have been either imprisoned or assassinated - he will discover not only the folly of his indifference, but the pointlessness of feeling otherwise. The actors all do adequate jobs, but I get the feeling they better presented the material on stage. (The movie was filmed at the same time David Hare was directing the stage production in London.) Nichols looks like he's constantly trying to stifle a yawn. But the story is the most important element. It first evokes images of Nazi Germany, and it made me wonder, again, how something like that could happen as recently as seventy years ago. Then, of course, I realized this sort of thing happens right now in the Middle East. But all of these actors play their roles with American accents. Surely something like this couldn't happen here. Then I realized the man we call president wants a constitutional amendment discriminating against homosexuals. They did that in Nazi Germany - as well, of course, as non-Aryans - and look what happened there. Then I realized the FCC is spending all of its time trying to control what Americans can watch on TV and listen to on the radio. Your internet access is being monitered too, by the way. They burned books in Nazi Germany. And look what happened there. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Show Less Cast & Crew Show More Cast & Crew

      More Like This

      View All Best Movies to Stream at Home
      54% 63% Wah-Wah 68% 69% The Assassination of Richard Nixon 68% 64% The Door in the Floor 17% 63% Land of the Blind 24% 57% Fierce People Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

      Photos

      View All The Designated Mourner photos

      The Designated Mourner

      View more photos

      Critics Reviews

      View All (17) Critics Reviews
      Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Rated: D Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Globe and Mail Rated: 3.5/4 Jul 12, 2002 Full Review Marjorie Baumgarten Austin Chronicle Rated: 2.5/5 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Rob Gonsalves Rob's Movie Vault Has a way of hiding in a dark corner of your memory, and popping out when you least expect it. Rated: A- Aug 12, 2006 Full Review Film Threat Rated: 3/5 Dec 6, 2005 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 3/5 Jun 28, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis In a dystopian society where intellectuals are executed by the repressive, pseudo-fascist government, Jack (Mike Nichols) has relinquished his culture and curiosity, while his wife, Judy (Miranda Richardson), and especially her surly father, Howard (David De Keyser), are far more reluctant. First Howard, and then Judy, are rounded up and eventually killed by the government -- and Jack, trying to recover from a mental collapse as a result, is left alone with his guilt.
      Director
      David Hare
      Producer
      Mark Shivas, Simon Curtis
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $63.0K
      Runtime
      1h 34m
      Sound Mix
      Surround