Synopsis
Seemingly disparate portraits of people -- among them a single mother, a high school principal, and an ace student -- Distinctly American -- all affected by the proliferation of guns in American society.
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Cast
- Forest WhitakerCarter
- Marcia Gay HardenJanet Huttenson
- Donald SutherlandCarl Wilk
- Lisa LongSandra Cohen
- Chris WarrenMarcus
- Amanda SeyfriedMouse
- Nikki ReedTally
- Tony GoldwynFrank
- Rex LinnEarl
- Davenia McFaddenFelicia
Recommendations
- 75
TV Guide Magazine
The overall effect of watching his film is a bit like a nerve-racking game of Russian roulette: You just know a gun is going to go off, but you don't know which of this multitude of characters it's going to hit. - 75
New York Daily News
While this is not exactly a hopeful movie, it's a polished exercise in the kind of social commentary that can wake people up. - 50
Village Voice
All of the stories are conceived as ongoing plights, and have no third act. Which would be an improvement on Haggis's hyperbolic civics lesson if Avelino had the chops to master realism and embrace ambivalence. The acting is pro enough to keep your blood up, but the reverb is minimal. - 50
The New York Times
If American Gun avoids the most obvious kinds of sensationalism, it has the flaw common to many editorial broadsides of overstuffing its episodes with melodrama and symbolism. - 42
The A.V. Club
The Sutherland segments are the most bothersome, because they never really reach a resolution, and because they're betrayed by Avelino's uni-faceted approach. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
A painfully earnest but dramatically inert film. - 40
Variety
Lacks focus and momentum as it attempts to interweave diverse story strands into a cautionary tapestry. - 40
Los Angeles Times
The film is haphazardly structured, undercutting its potential power.
