Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

airborne60 As has been mentioned by other reviewers, "Sommersby" is a copy of the French movie "Le retour de Martin Guerre" from 1982, starring Gerard Depardieu. While other such copies leave a lot of the original feeling and acting quality behind, "Sommersby" stands and holds well on it's own merits. See them both, and for once you may discover that the Hollywodized copy is the better one.While the original French story ends in the clear, the real Martin Guerre arrives in the last second of the trial, the real Jack Sommersby does not return. Instead, the drama plays around if "Jack" will hang for the crime of impersonating the real one or hang for a crime that the real Jack committed. That conflict, and his final choice is vastly more interesting than that of Martin Guerre. Martin Guerre never gives up his fight, he has all to loose. "Jack Sommersby" takes a stand and denounces his past but pays the price for it. The role of the wife, as played masterly by Jodie Foster, is much more important in "Sommersby" than in "...Martin Guerre".The acting is sensitive and expresses the persons inner agony in every blink of the eyes. This is a movie I have seen three times, and I am sure that I will see it several times again.

James Hitchcock In 1548 a young man named Martin Guerre disappeared from the southern French village of Artigat. Eight years later, an impostor named Arnaud du Tilh arrived in Artigat falsely claiming to be Martin. Although he was accepted as such by Guerre's wife Bertrande and his family, rumours began to spread about his identity, and he was eventually exposed when the true Martin Guerre returned to the village. A number of writers and film-makers have taken inspiration from these events, including Daniel Vigne, the director of "Le Retour de Martin Guerre" from 1982. "Sommersby" is sometimes regarded as a remake of Vigne's drama, but it might more accurately be described as being loosely inspired by the real historical events upon which the other was much more closely based. Jon Amiel transfers the action to the American South, immediately after the American Civil War. Jack Sommersby, is a landowner who left his farm to fight in the war. Nothing further has been heard from him, and everyone, including his wife Laurel, presumes that he is dead. Nobody, including Laurel, is particularly worried by this; Jack was an unpleasant individual, an abusive husband and a neglectful father to his young son Robert. Laurel is even planning to marry a neighbour named Orin Meacham. And then one day a man returns, claiming to be Jack. Yet, although he closely resembles Jack Sommersby physically, he is quite different in personality. He is kind and loving to Laurel and Robert and tries to help his poorer neighbours by selling parts of his farm to them. He is also a shrewd businessman, as evidenced by his scheme to revive the local economy by growing tobacco. He explains this change in his character by saying "War changes you; makes you appreciate things". The only people unhappy about Sommersby's return are Orin, whose plans to marry Laurel have been dashed, and racist Confederate veterans who resent the fact that Jack is trying to help former slaves as well as his white neighbours. Orin begins to suspect that the newcomer is in fact an impostor. (Which indeed he is). I am surprised that "Sommersby" has such a low rating on this board (currently only 5.9) and that it has been criticised so fiercely. One of the grounds of criticism has been the cultural snobbery of those, on both sides of the Atlantic, who assume that any Hollywood remake of a European film is bound to be a vastly inferior copy of the original. Yet, although Vigne's film is undoubtedly a good one, I think that Amiel's can stand comparison with it. There are, moreover, important differences between the two films. The real Martin Guerre appears in the film that bears his name, whereas here we never see the real Jack Sommersby. (We learn that he did indeed die in the war). Both impostors are placed on trial for their lives, but for different reasons. Du Tilh is tried for his own crime, that of impersonating Martin. (Adultery and fraud were capital offences in the France of that period). The false Sommersby, a former schoolmaster named Horace Townsend, is not tried for anything he has done himself, although there are plenty of murky episodes in his past, quite apart from the question of criminal impersonation. He is tried for a murder committed by the man whose identity he has stolen. There is no doubt that Sommersby was the killer, so the only way Townsend can save his neck is to admit his deceit and prove his true identity. Yet this is something he is strangely reluctant to do. Richard Gere can at times seem too laid-back, especially in comedies and lighter films. Yet when he is given more demanding roles, he is often capable of rising to the challenge, especially in films like "The Honorary Consul" and "Primal Fear", and "Sommersby" must count as one of his best performances, as Townsend is a very complex character. He is a man with a shady past who commits what is, to all intents and purposes, a criminal deception, yet who does for idealistic reasons, reasons for which he is prepared to lay down his life. To highlight all the varying facets of Townsend's character, while making him appear both believable and sympathetic, was a difficult task, but one in which Gere succeeded very well.Jodie Foster is equally good as Laurel, a woman torn between the need to believe that the man with whom she has fallen in love really is her long-lost husband miraculously changed for the better and the fear that her new-found happiness may in fact be based on a lie. This was one of a number of stellar performances in the late eighties and early nineties- others include "The Accused", "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Nell" which established her as the most exciting young actress of the period. There is also a good contribution from Bill Pullman as Orin, a man torn by jealousy and resentment and yet not wholly bad. Visually, the film is much darker than "Le Retour de Martin Guerre", which seemed to be suffused by a rich, warm light. Apart from the green of the vegetation, it is dominated by dull tones, particularly greys and browns, perhaps appropriate for a film which takes place in a country torn by civil war. It seemed to me that Amiel was taking the theme of the earlier film and using it to explore America's own history, as well as some dark areas of human psychology, the philosophical issues surrounding personal identity and the question of atonement for past sins. Indeed, it perhaps goes more deeply into these issues than did Vigne's film which did not, for example, explore deeply the reasons why du Tilh decided to steal another man's identity. If this is a remake, it is one which deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as its predecessor. 9/10

elredmond a lot of my family and many friends were extras in this movie(it was shot in the court house in my home town). my uncle, father, and a few teachers and acquaintances are clearly shown in the court scene, and the guy who says "hear ye, hear ye" is definitely one of my neighbors. (it's funny, he got credit for that). but at the end of the movie you can see my grandmother, twice. When Jodie foster is running through the crowd screaming "jack, jack", you see my grandmothers face take up nearly all the screen. it flashes to a view of Richard about to be hung, and then shoots back to Jodie running into, and around, my grandmother a second time. isn't' it obvious that they used the same shot twice? you think they'd try not to do that same one in a 5 second slot.

Robert J. Maxwell It would have made a great Twilight Zone episode. A man returns home after a six-year absence caused by the Civil War. He's the same man, and yet not the same. He's been taking lessons from Deepak Chopra or somebody because whereas before his departure he was a scumbag he has now turned into a populist hero of the Frank Capra brand. Is he an impostor? If so, why? And why doesn't the wife he comes home to recognize it? Why doesn't the entire VILLAGE see that he's a different guy? Six years isn't so long. When I look in the mirror I see the same Adonis I was six years ago, as good as ever. Better even.The most interesting features of this movie would have turned on the mystery of the new Sommersby trying to adjust to the life of the old. Yes, he's kinder, and maybe a better lover, and his shoe size seems to have changed. But that's about it.The bulk of the movie deals with a kind of love triangle between Richard Gere as Sommersby, Jody Foster as his wife, and Bill Pullman as a neighbor who had hoped to take Sommersby's place after a suitable period.We have to sit through scenes of Gere and Foster falling more deeply in love, and learning to trust each other (and then not trusting, and then trusting again, and then not trusting, and finally trusting again). I hope that came out right. I was a little confused after a while.The courtroom scene, in which Sommersby is charged with murdering someone, REALLY was confusing. A witness is brought in who claims to have know Gere when he was not Sommersby but somebody named Horace or something. This other Gere was a con man who pretended to be someone else, insinuate himself into the trust of his new community, gather up all their treasure for an economic venture -- maybe getting a town belle preggers -- and then take off, leaving them flat.And then -- well, I don't think I'll divulge the conclusion of the story here because I still don't know what the conclusion is. I THINK Gere is actually Horace and that Horace killed the original Sommersby, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.Nothing wrong with the performances or the direction. The music is a little soupy, the photography surprisingly fuzzy and unsunny, and the plot as murky as a pot o' skoosh.I suspect the audience could have swallowed that initial implausibility -- Gere posing as a non-Gere after such a short absence -- if it had led to further curious incidents casting doubt on his identity. Not just the shrunken shoe size. The writers could have thrown in a shrunken hat size as well. Or his wife might have noticed something about him at night. Well -- let that go. Yes. All in all, it would have been a great Twilight Zone without all that love and intrigue being impastoed all over it. I didn't care for it. It seems too slow. But it has enough redeeming features that I can understand why some people might feel differently.