Director Ross has so overburdened and overdecorated the little comedy that it goes as flat as uncorked Coke.

| May 3, 2024

Knowing the story hardly lessens Steel Magnolias impact or its humor, still its strongest element.

| May 3, 2024

Herbert Ross is such a pro that his works is as unobtrusive as it is effective.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 3, 2024

Director Herbert Ross' attempts to tart up the original are fussy and clumsy by turns.

| May 3, 2024

Call it a "feel good" movie, and you won't be the least bit wrong.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 3, 2024

The result is something grotesque and misshapen.

| May 3, 2024

MacLaine is wonderful, and she ought to be. She has all the best lines, and is the freest spirit in the Louisiana community.

| May 3, 2024

The true powerhouses, though, are Field and Roberts.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 3, 2024

The problem here is that in taking the play off the stage, director Ross and company dropped Magnolias' heart and soul, badly damaging them in the process.

| May 3, 2024

Steel Magnolias is a joyful, affirmative movie. It celebrates the strength of friendship.

| May 3, 2024

The film's strength comes from [the] great Sally Field, who has a dramatic scene here to end all dramatic scenes and makes it seem not the least bit contrived or manipulative or theatrical, but real.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 3, 2024

Under the fast-paced direction of Herbert Ross, it becomes a wonderfully inspirational anthem to female fortitude.

| May 3, 2024

There are, however, too many characters, and consequently some of the main characters take too long to develop.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 3, 2024

For all of its faults, Magnolias is in good company.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 3, 2024

Steel Magnolias is more a picture about women, more than it is a women's picture.

| May 3, 2024

In general, the cast seems to bring out the best in the material.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 3, 2024

A great deal of self-conscious acting goes on, an effect accentuated by Ross's over use of reaction shots: smiles, smirks, scowls, misty eyes.

| May 3, 2024

Moving enough to make you cry, much the same as Terms of Endearment did.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 3, 2024

While the script tends to grantee the tears, the cast ensures that some of the laughter will show through.

| May 3, 2024

It is not a perfect work, but it is so full of Mr. Harling's beguiling generosity of spirit, and so beautifully parlayed into cinematic life by its remarkable cast, that such popular appeal is wholly deserved.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 2, 2024