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The Magic of Belle Isle

The Magic of Belle Isle

Drama · Comedy · 2012

In an effort to tap into his original talent, a wheelchair-bound author moves to a rural town, where he befriends a single mother and her three kids, who help reignite his passion for writing.

Movie details

The Magic of Belle Isle

“A re-coming of age story.”

2012 Drama · Comedy 1h 49m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.0 / 10

21.2K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

33 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

46 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.0 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

In an effort to tap into his original talent, a wheelchair-bound author moves to a rural town, where he befriends a single mother and her three kids, who help reignite his passion for writing.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Magic of Belle Isle?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Rob Reiner

Written by

Guy Thomas · Rob Reiner · Andrew Scheinman

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman

Monte Wildhorn

Virginia Madsen

Virginia Madsen

Charlotte O'Neil

Madeline Carroll

Madeline Carroll

Willow O'Neil

Emma Fuhrmann

Emma Fuhrmann

Finnegan O'Neil

Nicolette Pierini

Nicolette Pierini

Flora O'Neil

Kenan Thompson

Kenan Thompson

Henry

Fred Willard

Fred Willard

Al Kaiser

Court is in session

Put The Magic of Belle Isle on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.