Philadelphia Critic Reviews

And yet Philadelphia is quite a good film, on its own terms. And for moviegoers with an antipathy to AIDS but an enthusiasm for stars like Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, it may help to broaden understanding of the disease.Read the full review

The story is timely and powerful, and the performances of Hanks and Washington assure that the characters will not immediately vanish into obscurity.Read the full review

On a scene-by-scene basis, in terms of performance and the grave issues under consideration, the film is quite absorbing.Read the full review

Phildelphia, with its velvety textures and rhythms and heads-up soundtrack, does a good job of at least putting the topic on the mainstream table. And it's dramatically potent as well as historically important. [14 Jan 1994, p.73]Read the full review

Forgiving its moments of melodrama, Philadelphia makes emotional power punches out of every smile, embrace and tear in its story of a regular guy contracting AIDS and getting booted out of the law firm that once lifted him to glory. [14 Jan 1994, p.C1]Read the full review

In the end, thanks to such effects and to the simple grace of Mr. Hanks's performance, this film does accomplish what it means to. Philadelphia rises above its flaws to convey the full urgency of its difficult subject, and to bring that subject home.Read the full review

It's less like a film by Demme than the best of Frank Capra. It is not just canny, corny and blatantly patriotic, but compassionate, compelling and emotionally devastating.Read the full review

But Philadelphia turns out to be a scattershot liberal message movie, one that ties itself in knots trying to render its subject matter acceptable to a mass audience.Read the full review

They have also stripped out almost all complexity, reducing the drama to a familiar match between good and evil. You've heard all the speeches before; only the nouns have been changed. [23 Dec 1993, p.A9]Read the full review