The characters start at rock bottom, grab pneumatic drills, and excavate themselves even deeper. For them, Hope is a thing teamed up with Bing Crosby. Yet there is always escape in the songs that sustained Depression America through the unsustainable.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 7, 2025

[Pennies] is the most emotional movie musical I’ve ever seen. It’s a stylized mythology of the Depression which uses the popular songs of the period as expressions of people’s deepest longings -- for sex, for romance, for money, for a high good time.

| Sep 12, 2023

It's a mix of a pathetic, soft-core potboiler and a musical extravaganza of yore that leaves a sour taste at its conclusion.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 27, 2020

It's different, but perfect. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Mar 11, 2020

Literal-minded moviegoers will find it easy to hate Pennies from Heaven. But those willing to go along with the device will find the film a source of constant surprise and delight.

| Oct 22, 2018

A bit of filmmaking as film criticism to be respected and admired above and beyond its relationship to the legendary miniseries that it pushed out of print for more than 20 years.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Dec 5, 2011

Perhaps this was not the project on which to lavish so many MGM millions. The BBC show was an enchanted cottage; this is the Las Vegas Grand Hotel.

| Feb 2, 2009

Almost as if he were directing Pinter, Herbert Ross has actors speak a line, then wait two beats before delivering the next phrase. Technique smothers such ordinarily lively performers as Martin, Peters and Harper.

| May 20, 2008

Not for everyone, but those who respond to it will find it unforgettable.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 20, 2008

Underrated, fascinating musical starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 8, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 10, 2007

O timo conceito deste musical torna-se ainda mais fascinante graas s belas coreografias, aos ricos figurinos, impecvel direo de arte e, claro, magnfica fotografia de Gordon Willis.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 8, 2007

Let's face the music and dance, indeed.

| Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 9, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 16, 2005

Pennies from Heaven is dazzling and disappointing in equal measure.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 23, 2004

The movie, though, is not easy to respond to. It's chilly without being provocative in any intellectual way.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 30, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 4, 2004

Dark as night but perfectly lit, a little sad but with a song in its heart.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 26, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 22, 2004