The Yellow Handkerchief

PG-13

Released Feb 26, 2010

1h 36m

Drama

Romance

List

65%

51 Reviews

Tomatometer

60%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Former con man Brett Hanson (William Hurt) is imprisoned for six years before finally being released on parole. Now he needs to get back home to Louisiana and the ex-wife (Maria Bello) he left there, so when he meets Gordy (Eddie Redmayne) and Martine (Kristen Stewart) on a road trip south, he accepts their offer to give him a ride. While Brett wonders whether his ex-wife will want to see him again, Gordy harbors a crush on Martine, who is trying to recover from her painful past.

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Critics Consensus

Small and intimate -- occasionally to a fault -- The Yellow Handkerchief rises above its overly familiar ingredients thanks to riveting performances from William Hurt and Kristen Stewart.

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J B

I Love this movie. Its simple but realistic and deep . Realistic senarios , emotion , situations . I love the characters, They feel relatable . Im an empath , this is my type of movie .

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

steve d

Predictable but likable. The cast is great and Stewart shows yet again with the right material she is extremely effective.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The apparent news from the in people in the industry was that no distributer wanted to buy this movie. Despite a respectable cast, The Yellow Handkerchief has sat on the shelf for nearly three years. The director, Udayan Prasad, is something of an unknown quantity (he does not have any "A list" films on his resume), and no major distributor was willing to take a chance on such a listless, dialogue-intensive motion picture. The Samuel Goldwyn Company paid a minimal amount for the rights, viewing this as a low-risk, high-reward endeavor. They will no doubt heavily promote Kristen Stewart's involvement, hoping to bilk Twilight fans into seeing this movie. There's little enough to appeal to them in The Yellow Handkerchief and almost nothing for anyone else.(pretentious mess).

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

will always be a fave

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

farah r

William Hurt's impressive performance isn't enough to carry the weight of this entire dull story while the rest of the cast, although renown, float about with little to dispel the blandness resulting in an enjoyable but forgettable drama.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

classic, william hurt!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

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Udayan Prasad

Director

William Hurt

Brett Hanson

Maria Bello

May

Kristen Stewart

Martine

Eddie Redmayne

Gordy

Veronica Russell

Warden Genaro

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Perri Nemiroff

CinemaBlend

Just as the relationships at the core of this drama, The Yellow Handkerchief is one big compromise. Make do with the lackluster parts and receive something uniquely pleasant.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 13, 2010

Full Review

Tom Long

Detroit News

This is basically brooding people doing awkward things in a humid environment.

Rated: C+

Apr 2, 2010

Full Review

Kimberley Jones

Austin Chronicle

When The Yellow Handkerchief finally hooks into the meat of Hamill's source story, the narrative tension puts enough wind in the film's sails to arrive at its corny but sentimentally satisfying conclusion.

Rated: 2.5/5

Apr 2, 2010

Full Review

Rene Jordan

El Nuevo Herald (Miami)

The start of Yellow Handkerchief is promising, but the film declines the closer it gets to the inevitable finally. [Full review in Spanish]

Jul 19, 2022

Full Review

Debbie Lynn Elias

Behind The Lens

[A] lyric narrative style that is celebrated through the strength of [cinematographer] Chris Menges' stunning imager.

Nov 3, 2019

Full Review

David Harris

Spectrum Culture

Although director Uduayan Prasad frames our three protagonists in beautiful bayou scenery and delicate sunlight, he does not give us enough to want to spend time with these people.

Rated: 2/5

Oct 19, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Former con man Brett Hanson (William Hurt) is imprisoned for six years before finally being released on parole. Now he needs to get back home to Louisiana and the ex-wife (Maria Bello) he left there, so when he meets Gordy (Eddie Redmayne) and Martine (Kristen Stewart) on a road trip south, he accepts their offer to give him a ride. While Brett wonders whether his ex-wife will want to see him again, Gordy harbors a crush on Martine, who is trying to recover from her painful past.

Director: Udayan Prasad
Producer: Lillian Birnbaum
Screenwriter: Pete Hamill, Erin Dignam
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Company
Production Co: Arthur Cohn Productions
Rating: PG-13 (Some Violence|Sexual Content|Language|Thematic Elements)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 26, 2010, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): May 5, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $317.0K
Runtime: 1h 36m

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