53
Metascore
41 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula NechakSeattle Post-IntelligencerPaula NechakWitherspoon is terrific.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe spirit of that most modern of 19th century heroines, Becky Sharp, remains intact, and Nair's Indian touches make for an intriguing, fresh approach.
- It almost makes you wonder whether Vanity Fair is not the perfect text for a lesson in Buddhist detachment. Certainly, Vanity Fair is a never-ending Western story that benefits from Nair's philosophically Eastern point of view.
- 60VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyNair's approach never entirely convinces, and the adaptation of the 900-plus-page book becomes increasingly episodic, making this Vanity Fair more a collection of intermittent pleasures than a satisfying emotional repast.
- 60NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenNair and Witherspoon pull back from the ferocity of Thackeray's portrait: they're afraid we won't find Becky Sharp likable enough. Yes, she's the most brilliant, bold and vibrant creature in this social panorama, but she should also be chilling.
- 50TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelThere's something about her (Nair) Vanity Fair that doesn't quite work. There is no depth beneath its bright surfaces, no potent emotional undercurrents.
- 50The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenVanity Fair has a deeper conceptual confusion. In mixing satire and romance, the movie proves once again that the two are about as compatible as lemon juice and heavy cream.
- 50TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxIt comes as a huge disappointment, then, that having cast Witherspoon as Miss Sharp, director Mira Nair and Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) were unable to resist that impulse to find 21st-century prototypes in 19th-century literary characters, fictional creations whose values lie not in the way they reflect our own narcissistic times, but the way they reveal so much about their own.
- 50Village VoiceLeslie CamhiVillage VoiceLeslie CamhiThe pacing feels choppy, and the characters' emotions are sometimes too sudden to be believable. (One exception is Rhys Ifans, affecting as Amelia's long-suffering and neglected suitor.)
- 40The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsEither a radical reinterpretation of the source material or a mammoth failure of nerve. Whichever the case, it makes for a tremendously dull film that gives Witherspoon little to do except pose against a pretty backdrop.