Canvas (2007)
75 %
Reviews Counted: 20 Fresh: 15 Rotten:5 Average Rating: 6.4/10
Consensus:
Canvas is a faithful portrayal of mental illness highlighted by terrific performances.
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Theatrical Release: Oct 12, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: This debut feature from director Joseph Greco is the semi-autobiographical tale of a 10-year-old Florida boy, Chris (Devon Gearhart), who returns from a summer in Alaska to find his mentally ill mother (Marcia Gay Harden) hearing voices in the walls again and Dad (Joe Pantoliano) up to his... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Marcia Gay Harden, Joe Pantoliano, Devon Gearhart, Paul Lasa, Marcus Johns
Director: Joseph Greco
Screenwriter: Joseph Greco
Producer: Sharon Lane, Adam Hammel, Lucy Hammel, Joe Pantoliano, Bill Erfurth
Composer: Joel Goodman
Screenwriter: Joseph Greco
Producer: Sharon Lane, Adam Hammel, Lucy Hammel, Joe Pantoliano, Bill Erfurth
Composer: Joel Goodman
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Click to read the article
Comment
04/03/08
Top Critic
If it weren't for the terrific performances, Canvas would be a dull and lifeless film; Marcia Gay Harden explores the schizophrenic character of Mary with a judicial technique that is both compassionate and credible.
11/10/07
Writer-director Joseph Greco makes a nice feature-film debut telling a true, disturbing story about a 10-year-old boy struggling to cope with a schizophrenic mother.
10/24/07
Top Critic Top Critic
Canvas is worth seeing for the acting, but the disease-of-the-week conventions and hackneyed visuals pretty well knock the wind out of its sails.
10/18/07
Top Critic
Greco succeeds where many others have failed in giving a real sense of what it is to grow up with a parent who's hobbled by mental illness.
10/12/07
Greco takes his biggest risk, perhaps, when he puts that boat in water with father and son manning the sails. It could be a mawkish scene that sinks everything that came before it, but like the watercraft that symbolizes so much, the movie remains afloat.
10/12/07
I can see why it was a hit at film festivals. I only hope it now gets its due in theaters.
10/12/07
Top Critic
First-time filmmaker Joseph Greco draws on personal experience for this devastating yet honest portrait of an ordinary Florida family.
10/12/07
Top Critic
Though Harden has the showier role, a subdued Pantoliano is the movie's real star. Sometimes, the quietest performances are the most powerful.
10/12/07
Top Critic
Canvas is a serious film about mental illness and a sentimental heartwarmer, and succeeds in both ways.
10/12/07
Top Critic
Canvas is a movie that rings emotionally true, despite structural contrivances and dim, washed-out color.
10/12/07
Top Critic
Small and slow-moving, and not in a way that means finely detailed and pensive.
10/12/07
Despite its admirable qualities, Canvas fizzles and falls into cliche.
10/11/07
Top Critic
An absence of detail means that Canvas teaches little about what it's like to be mentally ill or to know someone who is.
10/11/07
Greco's sincerity is so palpable that the frequent uplift feels deserved, but with just-passable filmmaking and the demeaning score, Canvas falls somewhere between powerful indie and made-for-TV diversion.
10/09/07
Top Critic
Writer-director Joseph Greco's refusal to explain the roots of Mary's madness gives John's desperate desire to summon happier days a bewitching poignancy.
10/07/07
The director happens to know the often maligned subject of mental illness well from his own childhood as the son of a psychotic mother, and he embraces it with genuine feeling, emotional spontaneity and absence of consciously formulated dramatic pretense.
09/28/07
Top CriticRelated Forums
Amazing Movie--haven't cried like this since Dead Poet's Society
by: filmfemmefatale 10/10/07
by: filmfemmefatale 10/10/07
News
Critical Consensus: No Debatin' Clayton, Night Almost Owns, Elizabeth Not Golden
posted by Tim Ryan and Alex Vo October 11, 2007
This week at the movies we got lawyer types (Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney and Tilda Swinton), dueling...
posted by Tim Ryan and Alex Vo October 11, 2007
This week at the movies we got lawyer types (Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney and Tilda Swinton), dueling...
Around the Network
• Canvas at Rotten Tomatoes
IGN RSS Feeds