The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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How Stella Got Her Groove Back
Drama · Comedy · Romance · 1998
Through good times and bad, Stella and Delilah have always had each other. Now, Stella's so busy building a life that she's forgotten how to really live. But Delilah is about to change all that. What starts as a quick trip to Jamaica, ends as an exhilarating voyage of self discovery as Stella learns to open her heart and find love – even if it's with a man 20 years her junior.
Movie details
How Stella Got Her Groove Back
“Sometimes you have to break the rules to free your heart.”
1998 Drama · Comedy · Romance 2h 4m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
5.7 / 10
8.5K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
51 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
56 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
5.8 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
Through good times and bad, Stella and Delilah have always had each other. Now, Stella's so busy building a life that she's forgotten how to really live. But Delilah is about to change all that. What starts as a quick trip to Jamaica, ends as an exhilarating voyage of self discovery as Stella learns to open her heart and find love – even if it's with a man 20 years her junior.
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 How Stella Got Her Groove Back?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe 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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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Written by
Terry McMillan · Ronald Bass
Angela Bassett
Stella Payne
Taye Diggs
Winston Shakespeare
Whoopi Goldberg
Delilah Abraham
Regina King
Vanessa
Suzzanne Douglas
Angela
Michael J. Pagan
Quincy Payne
Sicily Johnson
Chantel
Court is in session
Put How Stella Got Her Groove Back on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.