Village Voice
The bleakly bizarre, uneven aesthetic and direction that is fluid but not quite limber succeed and fail from montage to montage, with the principals doing a sort of karaoke tribute to the likes of Joplin and Springsteen...
Full review
Romance and Cigarettes
We’ve all seen and admired John Turturro before (Transformers, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?). imdb.com describes him as a ‘highly talented, lightly built Italian American actor who always looks unsettled and jumpy’. Anyway, he’s directed this down-and-dirty musical set in the world of working-class New York, which tells a story of a husband's (James Gandolfini) journey into infidelity and redemption when he must choose between his seductive redheaded mistress (Kate Winslet) and his beleaguered dress-maker wife (Susan Sarandon).
Less
2005115 minsUSA
ComedyMusicalRomance
Romance and Cigarettes | Reviews
52%60 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Variety
Chockfull of ideas and with an irreverence that irresistibly recalls late '60s American cinema, thesp John Turturro's third outing in the helmer's chair, Romance & Cigarettes, alternately shines and sputters...
Full review
The New York Times
There is more raw vitality pumping through Romance & Cigarettes, John Turturro’s passionate ode to the sensual pulse of life in a working-class neighborhood of Queens, than in a dozen perky high school musicals. This is a movie in which a dirty mind is a good thing. Call it “The Singing Id.” Prudes, be forewarned...
Full review
Hollywood Reporter
The sad result is a karaoke nightmare. Loud and pointlessly crude, the film takes the disintegration of a dysfunctional working-class family and gives it the song-and-dance treatment...
Full review
BBC
A tenuous plot disperses into a smoky haze in low-budget tune-fest Romance & Cigarettes. It's billed as a "down and dirty musical about love" and actor-turned-filmmaker John Turturro certainly brings a cheekily raw and edgy quality to a stagnating format. There are also hearty performances from James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet as three corners of a suburban love triangle, but that's just one facet in a film of many parts that fail to harmonise...
Full reviewRomance and Cigarettes | Release Details
We aren’t aware of any way to watch Romance and Cigarettes in New Zealand. If we’ve got that wrong, please contact us.