American Pastoral is oddly flat and uninvolving for the most part, despite the convulsions it represents.

| Feb 11, 2021

There is promise for better outputs by McGregor in the future, with kinder material, but American Pastoral is joyless.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 3, 2021

What could have been an interesting look at what happens when radicalization comes home is neutered by some swiss cheese storytelling - lots of holes.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 3, 2021

Its daring look at adolescent rebellion and adult disgruntlement - even when presented more as a history lesson than commercial entertainment - is perturbingly intriguing.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 4, 2020

It's like a balloon with a slow leak; it's more of a slow descent than an outright crash and burn, but either way, you're left feeling low.

| Apr 28, 2020

Roth is an author that many have deemed unadaptable, but American Pastoral gets more right than it gets wrong. This should be applauded.

| Mar 30, 2020

American Pastoral has two things going for it: Pitch perfect casting and the strength of the source material.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 5, 2020

Proving to have a beautiful directorial eye....and chronologically efficient script by John Romano that retains the emotional and historical depth and richness of Roth's work, [Ewan] McGregor now delivers an immersive and compelling work.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 31, 2019

As a first effort, McGregor's directorial debut is lacking, but perhaps he chose to bite off a huge chunk by taking on a literary masterpiece.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 19, 2019

Love can be the wind in someone's sails or the anchor dragging them down to the bottom of the sea; McGregor wants to explore both sides.

| Jul 28, 2019

McGregor can't quite pull off the cockishness and larger-than-life zeal of a young Swede: he seems already beaten somewhat when we meet him, meaning that his fall into ignominy is less jarring than it should be.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 17, 2019

...the trouble with American Pastoral is that these individually competent scenes are strung together into an inchoate whole.

| Original Score: C- | Dec 27, 2018

There are plenty of good scenes, but ultimately American Pastoral is less than the sum of its admirable parts. The story is meant to capture an American event through one man's misadventures, but the overall effect is of a painful melodrama.

| Aug 23, 2018

Quickly dissolves into contrived drama and uneven and skewed character motivations.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 14, 2018

Fails to suss out Roth's biting Jewish angst and humor.

| Original Score: C | Aug 12, 2018

The film is a tad too long but nevertheless is well acted and rather moving.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 18, 2017

American Pastoral is boring at best, but it will play well to one audience-white suburban parents.

| Oct 16, 2017

The whole production feels verged on the perch of camp.

| Sep 28, 2017

The film gets to where it's going by the midpoint and then just sits there, grinding your face in its (or Swede's? or Roth's?) hatred of the 1960s.

| Sep 20, 2017

Not only does the book defeat McGregor, the neophyte director; it also defeats McGregor, the accomplished actor.

| Jun 20, 2017