Movie Review for Amazing Grace

Summary: William Wilberforce led efforts as a member of Parliament in 18th-century England to end slavery and the slave trade in the British empire. Wilberforce was elected to the House of Commons at 21 and took on the issue of slavery, successfully assembling a diverse coalition that went up against the most powerful men of the time.

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By John Wirt of Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) (8/0)
            Amazing Grace may not accomplish the depth of poignancy inherent in its subject, but it's a stead...

By Phil Villarreal of Arizona Daily Star (8/0)
            Coming soon to a social studies class near you.

By Philip Martin of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (8/0)
            There is a cheering sense of moral force behind this film, which could have become preachy, trite...

By Phil Kloer of Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/0)
            A historical drama that feels very up-to-date, if your eyes are prepared to see.

By Josh Rosenblatt of Austin Chronicle (8/0)
            What makes William Wilberforce a great man is also what makes him a bore: He's possessed of such ...

By Matthew Leyland of BBC (8/0)
            Accessibility is one of the movie's virtues: without dumbing down, it makes the workings of Parli...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Ty Burr of Boston Globe (8/0)
            It's a doughty movie, stuck halfway between Masterpiece Theatre and Classics Illustrated...

By Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune (8/0)
            ...honorable, but disposable...

By Peter Rainer of Christian Science Monitor (8/0)
            [Director Michael Apted] has an unfortunate penchant for bland stateliness, and never more so tha...

By Russ Breimeier of Christianity Today (8/0)
            A well-told cinematic example of a man who used his faith and God-given opportunities to change t...

By Jules Brenner of Cinema Signals (8/0)
            TV in vision, structure and execution. To think feature film as a delivery vehicle for it is mor...

By Mark Palermo of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (8/0)
            Amazing Grace's examination of men in power moved to change risks ridicule and righteousness for ...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net (8/0)
            Gruffudd and the amazing cast give performances that would make this film more useful in teaching...

By Matt Brunson of Creative Loafing (8/0)
            Perhaps more Masterpiece Theatre than motion picture, Amazing Grace nevertheless tells a story th...

By Boo Allen of Denton Record Chronicle (TX) (7/1)
            Handsome bio-pic wavers between a surplus of piety and a well done history lesson.

By Michael Booth of Denver Post (8/0)
            I'm sure [director] Apted meant well, but Amazing Grace comes across as a surprisingly graceless ...

By Robert Denerstein of Denver Rocky Mountain News (8/0)
            In building his movie around a single issue, Apted succeeds in capturing a rough-and-tumble side ...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (8/0)
            It's clear that the filmmakers believe a movie about political debate has to have a lot of speech...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Emanuel Levy of EmanuelLevy.Com (8/0)
            Based on the true story of one man's crusade to end slavery in 18th-century Great Britain, Michae...

By Helen OHara of Empire Magazine (8/0)
            There’s so much story here that the characters don’t have quite enough room to breathe, but it’s ...

By Vince Koehler of Entertainment Spectrum (8/0)
            Don't miss this film.

By Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly (7/1)
            ...earnest, solemn stuff.

By Rex Roberts of Film Journal International (8/0)
            Michael Apted channels history, but Grace is amazing for the modern sensibilities of its 18th-cen...

By Matt McKillop of filmcritic.com (8/0)
            A movie for people who like uncomplicated, uplifting stories where good triumphs over evil.

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Matt McKillop of filmcritic.com (8/0)
            ...a surprisingly entertaining political drama.

By Rick Groen of Globe and Mail (8/0)
            So much to admire and so little to amaze.

By Eric Lurio of Greenwich Village Gazette (8/0)
            Think of this as "Pride and Prejudice" meets "Reds".

By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (8/0)
            A creditable historical drama about those who choose to be in the world, not merely of it.

By Kevin Williamson of Jam! Movies (8/0)
            The movie emerges in the end as a stirring and -- cover your ears, kids -- educational ode to the...

By Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews (8/0)
            an intelligent film about serious thinkers and their ideas, and it's director Michael Apted's spa...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Ella Taylor of L.A. Weekly (8/0)
            Steven Knight's ponderous script is front-loaded with expository deep background and stuffed into...

By Robert Roten of Laramie Movie Scope (8/0)
            It is one of the world's great songs, and now it has a worthy movie to go with it.

By Prairie Miller of Long Island Press (8/0)
            Illuminates how key transformative historical moments play out in the business of everyday life.

By Jeffrey Overstreet of Looking Closer (8/0)
            Steven Knight has enlivened what might have been workmanlike, spiced the romance with wit, spiked...

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (8/0)
            Director Michael Apted and screenwriter Steven Knight can't help letting a little sanctification ...

By Pete Hammond of Maxim (8/0)
            An inspirational, moving and wonderfully well-told story that comes to the screen at just the rig...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Meg Jones of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (8/0)
            The film ultimately tells a powerful and little-known historical tale.

By Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (8/0)
            One of the nobler 'based on true events' efforts I've seen in some time, one of the most entertai...

By Ted Murphy of Murphy's Movie Reviews (8/0)
            Apted directs with a firm hand and the film has been gorgeously shot by Remi Adefarasin. The larg...

By David Edelstein of New York Magazine (8/0)
            Michael Apted’s Amazing Grace is a beautifully chiseled blunt instrument. No, it’s not subtle, bu...

By Kyle Smith of New York Post (8/0)
            ...entertaining history lesson...

By Manohla Dargis of New York Times (8/0)
            Amazing Grace, a prettified take on the life and times of the 18th-century reformer William Wilbe...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Manohla Dargis of New York Times (8/0)
            ...generally pleasing and often moving, even when the story wobbles off the historical rails or b...

By David Denby of New Yorker (8/0)
            As square as this movie is, it has been made with eloquence and jaunty high spirits, and it tells...

By Kam Williams of NewsBlaze (8/0)
            This compelling bio-pic is an overdue tribute to William Wilberforce (1759-1833), the British abo...

By Cynthia Fuchs of Nitrate Online (8/0)
            The focus on Wilberforce's ailing body seems a peculiar, not to say "amazing," displacement of af...

By Brian Orndorf of OhmyNews.com (7/1)
            History purists will find the details enchanting, period drama fanatics will adore the arm's-leng...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (8/0)
            Though it's not as inspiring as its makers might have wished, it's a solid, respectful treatment ...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Ian Grey of Orlando Weekly (8/0)
            It’s a good story, but director Michael Apted can’t help but fall into the usual cinematic habits...

By Jeremy C. Fox of Pajiba (8/0)
            The whole thing feels a bit smug and complacent, as if having a worthwhile subject were the only ...

By Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly (8/0)
             Climax is a groundswell of tear-inducing virtue that ultimately leaves Grace on a high, if not a...

By Ethan Alter of Premiere Magazine (8/0)
            Earnest, respectful and thoroughly dull, Michael Apted's Amazing Grace follows all of the worst t...

By Linda Cook of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (8/0)
            "Amazing" indeed.

By Louis Proyect of rec.arts.movies.reviews (8/0)
            Sanitized version of the career and life of William Wilberforce, who thought that the uncouth beh...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Mark R. Leeper of rec.arts.movies.reviews (8/0)
            AMAZING GRACE is a second-class film on a first-class theme. The film smolders for almost two h...

By Jim Hemphill of Reel.com (8/0)
            Characters are so imprisoned by the movie's need to drive home its antislavery message that they ...

By Robin Clifford of Reeling Reviews (8/0)
            Amazing Grace is an important historical drama that comes out at a good time for movie-goers who ...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (8/0)
            ...the film is lacking in several key areas.

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (8/0)
            Gruffudd and Apted are pleasantly earnest in their efforts to spread Wilberforce's message of pea...

By David Elliott of San Diego Union-Tribune (8/0)
            Often vulnerable, more often inspiring, Gruffudd's Wilberforce not only stirs curiosity but also ...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle (8/0)
            It's a detailed, affecting biography of one of the great souls who moved humanity forward.

By William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (8/0)
            ...an unusually satisfying and inspiring historical epic from one of contemporary cinema's best f...

By Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine (8/0)
            Fernando Meirelles and Edward Zwick take note: Amazing Grace is proof that liberal filmmakers can...

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (8/0)
            An inspiring drama directed by Michael Apted about a zealous abolitionist in eighteenth century E...

By Thomas Peyser of Style Weekly (Richmond, VA) (8/0)
            History as one might wish it to be taught to an earnest child.

By Frank Ochieng of TheWorldJournal.com (8/0)
            ...ponderous and relentlessly padded in its moral morass... Grace manages to work effectively as ...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Wally Hammond of Time Out (8/0)
            Grufudd is fine, passionate and single-minded, though overly Romantic, and quietly upstaged by th...

By Tony Medley of Tolucan Times (8/0)
            A good film editor could have made this 111-minute effort into an entertaining, tight 90 minute f...

By Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide's Movie Guide (8/0)
            [The screenwriter] does an admirable job of streamlining a story that unfolds over the course of ...

By Eddie Cockrell of Variety (8/0)
            A workmanlike costumer that distills Blighty's long battle for the abolition of slavery and the p...

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            The rhetoric in the film is clearly intended to be relevant to the situation in the United States...

By Kevin Courrier of Boxoffice Magazine (3/5) No reference
            A terrific subject becomes a tepid morality play.

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Rob Thomas of Capital Times (Madison, WI) (3/5) No reference
            Although the film does skirt the edge of preachiness at times, you certainly can't argue with the...

By Teresa Budasi of Chicago Sun-Times (7/1) No reference
            ...inspiring...

By Michael Elliott of Movie Parables (7/1) No reference
            Not only is it an engaging drama, it is a much needed look at an historical event that may have b...

By Gary Thompson of Philadelphia Daily News (4/4) No reference
            [Director] Apted gives the movie a reasonably good period feel. Working with an obviously limited...

By Diana Saenger of ReviewExpress.com (4/4) No reference
            Amazing Grace marks an unforgettable and regrettable time in world history while highlighting a f...

By Jack Garner of Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (4/4) No reference
            Don't shy away for fear of a dry bit of educational cinema; Amazing Grace is a well-told and very...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Laura Kelly of South Florida Sun-Sentinel (3/5) No reference
            Well-made by Michael Apted, and well-acted all around.

By Bruce Bennett of Spectrum (St. George, Utah) (4/4) No reference
            the film, like its central character, is resolute in its objective. Perhaps too resolute.

By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (4/4) No reference
            How could Michael Apted, who directed those towering pillars of truth the 7 Up documentaries, mak...

By Julia Buckley of thelondonpaper (3/5) No reference
            Gruffudd's Wilberforce lacks charisma and the House of Commons scenes are interminable. Worthy sh...

By Lawrence Toppman of Charlotte Observer (7/1) Not Reachable
            The movie is the usual kind of film biography of a respected figure from the distant past -- hono...

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/1) Not Reachable
            Inspiring drama of how one man can make a huge difference in the fight against the importation of...

                         Reviews of Amazing Grace
By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/1) Not Reachable
            All the elements work harmoniously together: beautiful settings, an extremely talented cast who b...

Movie Distributors
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Roadside Attractions

Production Companies
Sunflower Productions
Walden Media
FourBoys Films
Bristol Bay Productions

Movie Studios