Metacritic reviews

Passionate and magical, Forrest Gump is a tonic for the weary of spirit.

Manages the difficult feat of being an intimate, even delicate tale played with an appealingly light touch against an epic backdrop.

The results are skillful, highly affecting, and ultimately more than a little pernicious.

A remarkable balance of sentimentality and harshness, darkness and light.

Doesn't sound like a very prepossessing title, but prepare to be taken aback by "what's in a name." [6 July 1994, Life, p.1D]

The film's technical brilliance and sentimental kick seduced many viewers unsuspecting of its polemical intent.

It's most successful when it is being off-center, a state of grace it doesn't quite have the nerve to maintain. [6 July 1994, Calendar, p. F-1]

Has the elements of an emotionally gripping story. Yet is feels less like a romance than like a coffee-table book celebrating the magic of special effect. [6 July 1994, p. C9]

Clearly a great event, Forrest Gump is not, however, a great film. It has the form of an epic without real depth or resonance; the trappings of satire without a coherent attitude; and the semblance of historical revisionism without a critical sensibility.

It is also glib, shallow, and monotonous, a movie that spends so much time sanctifying its hero that, despite his "innocence," he ends up seeming about as vulnerable as Superman.