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Poster for Harold and Maude

Harold and Maude

They were meant to be. But exactly what they were meant to be is not quite clear.

1971 · 1h 32m · PG Comedy, Drama, Romance
Directed by Hal Ashby

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Overview

The young Harold lives in his own world of suicide-attempts and funeral visits to avoid the misery of his current family and home environment. Harold meets an 80-year-old woman named Maude who also lives in her own world yet one in which she is having the time of her life. When the two opposites meet they realize that their differences don’t matter and they become best friends and love each other.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
86%
Tomatometer
Fresh

The fact that [it] isn't very funny and, like its 80-year-old heroic, long outlives its necessary life, is less important than the fact that the characters frequently react gently or like credible human beings to the script's impossible notions.

Richard McGuinness, Village Voice
Rotten

Simpleminded, but it's fairly inoffensive, at least until Ashby lingers over the concentration-camp serial number tattooed on Gordon's arm. Some things are beyond the reach of whimsy.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Fresh

It is most successful when it keeps to the tone of an insane fairystory set up at the beginning of the movie.

Derek Adams, Time Out
Rotten

[Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon] both are so aggressive, so creepy and off-putting.

Vincent Canby, New York Times
Rotten

The visual style makes everyone look fresh from the Wax Museum, and all the movie lacks is a lot of day-old gardenias and lilies and roses in the lobby, filling the place with a cloying sweet smell. Nothing more to report today.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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