Rotten
The elements are in place but they don't add up to great drama in this well-meant effort to personalize the plight of illiterate people.
Variety Staff, Variety
Stanley & Iris
Some people need love spelled out for them.
1990 · 1h 44m · PG-13
Drama, Romance
Directed by
Martin Ritt
Overview
An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
29%
Tomatometer
Rotten
The ending, despite good intentions, is American cinema at its tackiest and most hollow.
Stephen Garrett, Time Out
Fresh
It's as honest and direct and entertaining as the considerable talents of everyone involved can make it.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
Rotten
Here, in a movie less animated than a barrel of tree sloths, Ritt encourages stale performances and a pace as dull as more tree sloths.
Rita Kempley, Washington Post
Rotten
McAlpine may be the movie's smartest contributor. He alone seems to realize that this pedantic project will soon be graduating into home-video or classroom use.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
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