The read
Critics rate it 13 points higher than audiences do.
Synopsis
Based on the Depression-era bildungsroman memoir of writer A. E. Hotchner, the film follows the story of a boy struggling to survive on his own in a hotel in St. Louis after his mother is committed to a sanatorium with tuberculosis. His father, a German immigrant and traveling salesman working for the Hamilton Watch Company, is off on long trips from which the boy cannot be certain he will return.
Ratings
IMDb7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes91%
Metacritic86/100
Critics rate it 13 points higher than audiences do.
173 audience votes
Key crew
- Steven SoderberghScreenplay
- Steven SoderberghDirector
- Cliff MartinezOriginal Music Composer
Cast
- Jesse BradfordAaron Kurlander
- Jeroen KrabbéMr. Kurlander
- Lisa EichhornMrs. Kurlander
- Karen AllenMiss Mathey
- Spalding GrayMr. Mungo
- Elizabeth McGovernLydia
- Cameron BoydSullivan
- Adrien BrodyLester
- Joe ChrestBen
- John McConnellPatrolman Burns
- Amber BensonElla McShane
- Kristin GriffithMrs. McShane
Stills
Themes
hotelgreat depressioncanarybased on memoir or autobiographybellhop tuberculosistraveling salesmanmarbleselevator operatorlock childliving alonest. louis