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Vanity Fair
Focus Features


7.0

based on 41 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 12 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some sensuality/partial nudity and a brief violent image

Starring Reese Witherspoon, James Purefoy, Romola Garai, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Gabriel Byrne, Jim Broadbent, Bob Hoskins, and Rhys Ifans

Mira Nair's film version of the classic novel by William Makepeace Thackery introduces a new audience to the beautiful, funny, passionate and calculating heroine Becky Sharp (Witherspoon). (Focus Features)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	William Makepeace Thackeray (novel) Matthew Faulk Julian Fellowes Mark Skeet
DIRECTED BY:	Mira Nair
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 1, 2005 Video: February 1, 2005 Theatrical: September 1, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	137 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / USA

Nominated, Golden Lion, 2004 Venice Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The peculiar quality of Vanity Fair, which sets it aside from the Austen adaptations such as "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice," is that it's not about very nice people. That makes them much more interesting.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Witherspoon's simply terrific, and it's amazing how quickly and easily she sheds speculation that she was too modern for the role.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Graced with Nair's loving direction, Witherspoon's radiance and that great cast, it is a treat, if somewhat less so than the novel.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

A triumph for its director and its star.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Witherspoon is terrific.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Yet something's missing in director Mira Nair's treatment -- specifically, a point of view about the material, a compelling reason for this historical excavation beyond the fact that Reese Witherspoon makes a convincing Becky Sharp.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Nair and screenwriters Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes have faithfully carried most of the main characters over from the novel but have changed its point of view.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Despite its flaws, the movie is compulsively watchable, and few will be bored by it. It's a charming movie that falls short of greatness, but is still worth a solid recommendation.

Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo

Nair, against all odds, has injected new life into this oft-filmed tale, handily re-creating the grimy look of early 19th-century London streets.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Smart, saucy, and ingenious in the extreme. The trouble is that when a subtext is dragged to the fore, however splendidly, the poor old text gets lost.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

While the film bubbles with humor, sensual detail and heaps of plot, it never quite becomes more than the sum of its parts. It's well worth seeing, but it isn't transcendent.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The spirit of that most modern of 19th century heroines, Becky Sharp, remains intact, and Nair's Indian touches make for an intriguing, fresh approach.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

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.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It borders on perky -- a duller, safer tonal choice for the story of a conniving go-getter whose fall is as precipitous as her rise.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The movie crams in so many of the events and characters of Thackeray's 900-page novel that the story often seems to be moving on fast-forward, pausing here and there to introduce a character, then skipping ahead — from London to the country to Brussels and on, eventually, to India.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Nair makes Vanity Fair an elegant showcase for an unforgettable heroine.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Nair'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.

Newsweek David Ansen

Nair 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.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

It's by no means a classic, but the dialogue and high caliber of performances mean you’'ll get your money's worth, especially if you're really into empire waistlines and that infamous English haughtiness.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The effect is a bit like watching "Gone With the Wind" with a dumpling substituting for Scarlett O’Hara.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

This might be tolerable if Nair hadn't missed the central point, that Becky Sharp isn't sharp like spice, she's sharp like a razor.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

With more time and a dash more cynicism, the film just might have achieved the thrilling allure of Becky Sharp's perfectly icy heart.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

What's missing from this Vanity Fair is the sense of plucky, anything-goes adventurousness that abounds in Thackeray's novel.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Unfortunately, Nair's film doesn't so much end as fall off a cliff, the ultimate victim of viewers' heightened expectations that this briskly paced story will take them someplace -- other than around the block in a horse-drawn carriage.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

This movie has precious little satirical edge. What is needs is more emphasis on the "vanity" and less on the "fair."

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

Despite the curry flavoring Ms. Nair has seen fit to add, this is a Vanity Fair without spice.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

In an effort to blend Thackeray and "Sex and the City," Vanity Fair ends up nowhere.

Time Richard Schickel

There's something about her (Nair) Vanity Fair that doesn't quite work. There is no depth beneath its bright surfaces, no potent emotional undercurrents.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It 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.

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

The 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.)

USA Today Claudia Puig

Thackeray said that he wanted "to leave everybody dissatisfied and unhappy at the end of the story." Nair may have had other intentions, but by film's end, audiences are bound to be left dissatisfied with the choppy and confusing storytelling style and unhappy about the missed opportunity.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Vanity 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.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

I don’t quite cherish Thackeray’s novel, but a can-do feminist, multicultural contemporization of it strikes me as, well, unnecessary.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Either 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.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The first half is better than average for an opulent Classics Illustrated film, thanks to realistic period detail, brisk storytelling, and Reese Witherspoon as the saucy rags-to-riches Becky Sharp. Then the whole lumbering weight of the production catches up with the filmmakers, slowing the proceedings to an interminable crawl.

LA Weekly Ron Stringer

Turgid, melodramatic travesty of Thackeray's gimlet-eyed satire.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Witherspoon is flavorless, so she emphasizes the screenplay's skimpiness instead of at least partially redressing it.

Empire Emma Cochrane

A serious misfire.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

She has been made lovable -- and a Vanity Fair with a lovable Becky Sharp has no reason to exist. It's as if Shakespeare had put Hamlet on Prozac: What's the point?

Slate David Edelstein

I wonder if anything could have made this misfire work.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

There may be filmmakers whose own vision is vast enough to take on Thackeray's, but Mira Nair isn't one of them. Her new film of Vanity Fair is a disaster. Scene by scene and moment to moment, it's a woeful misreading of the book.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ilze S. gave it a9:
Movie was good, I liked everyone in this movie. I think, it’s very clear that this is really Vanity Fair. I don’t like BBC movie about it, although I think it was enjoyable. This is a perfect cast for Vanity Fair. Winterspoon and Romola Garai are on the top. They rullz. Overall: Interesting movie.

Greg B. gave it a10:
An extravagant and very well acted retelling of Thackeray's masterpiece of EnglIsh manners and mores at the beginning of the 19th century.

David W. gave it a10:
Low expectations ("Barry Lyndon" I found dull) but my goodness this was stellar stuff. The film is not a ten but the performances are and what can I say; it worked for me.

Vince H. gave it a 4:
The only way I can describe what happens to the middle of this film is this example: Imagine swimming on the surface of a lake, then getting a heavy stone tied to your foot and sinking. That is what happens here. The first part of the film, which introduces Becky and her various run-ins with bachelors and her new home, is well-paced and entertaining. I hate to use the word "Slogging" mainly because every other critic uses it, but that's a good way to describe it. Once Becky settles down with Rawdon, the movie becomes dull and boring to the point of exhaustion. Mira Nair is a great filmmaker, and directed my favorite movie of 2002 (Monsoon Wedding) and many others, and the direction throughout is in the style of a woman's weepie of the 1950's or something. Except for a scene where Becky dances with some Indian girls, it is weak. The script doesn't completely encapsulate the pungent satire of Thackery's novel, and it's not as concise or involving either. Which is odd since Julian Fellowes (who wrote the great "Gosford Park") had a hand in it. Overall not so much bad as dissapointig, especially considering the talent involved.

J. Y. gave it a 4:
First of all the story had a lot of gaps, i had to strugle sometimes to put things together (this is not a suspense flick, things shouldn't have to be 'put together') and the photography was weak, a dissapointment. It's a shame Gabriel Byrne was in this, he's better than this.

C M gave it a 7:
First, it should be said that Reese Witherspoon transitioned wonderfully from Elle Woods, sorority girl, to Rebecca Sharp, "mountaineer"! I was really impressed with her performance and I'm excited to see her take on more dramatic roles, b/c I know it's in her to give more than just a good 'blonde' joke. Secondly, the costumes were great! Totally loved them. And there was plenty of witty, biting humor to keep you laughing. But the reason I gave this a 7 instead of something higher was due to the fact that it seemed some of the relationships failed to flesh out properly. It was almost like there was more story there but it was cut due to time restraints. So mabye the DVD will reveal a director's cut or extra scenes that can help fill in the blanks a little. But overall the film was enjoyable, fun, and emotional, all at once.

Blanco A. gave it a 7:
The movie is good, but not great. And I would venture to say that it's a little LONG. There definitely could have been some fat shaved off the film's bones. I suppose the film is more realistic than others of its ilk because Becky certainly doesn't become one of the most likable people in the world by the end of this bildungsroman. What I found especially weird was that I was the only one in the theatre laughing at the obvious laugh lines. Did the Santa Monica crowd not get the movie??? Puzzling.

Vanity Fair Focus Features

Vanity Fair
Focus Features