Coco Chanel: Season 1
  • Network: Lifetime
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 13, 2008
  • Season #: 1
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
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  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Adam Buckman
    88
    Bobulova is delightful to watch, playing the younger Coco as winsome, stubborn, independent and gifted. MacLaine, seen always with a cigarette between two fingers, has less screen time, but she commands every minute in which she appears.
  2. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: David Hinckley
    80
    Shirley MacLaine will get most of the attention for playing fashion legend Coco Chanel in this smart-looking and solidly crafted new Lifetime biopic premiering Saturday night.
  3. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Nancy DeWolf Smith
    60
    While little of this is boring, the movie only sizzles and sparks when it jumps out of flashback mode and into the 1950s "present," with Ms. MacLaine as a slightly cranky and tottering but totally grand old dame.
  4. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Marilyn Moss
    60
    We don't get a great deal of character development, nor do we always get the truth, but with Coco, there is plenty to see and do.
  5. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: David Wiegand
    50
    Oh, it's not very French and the dialogue is absurd, but somehow from this divine mess emerges something that at least approximates a woman you have to admire.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    50
    Perhaps appropriately, the period trappings and costumes are impeccable, part of a miniseries that weaves six production logos into its hemline--suggesting more commerce than art in its conception.
  7. Philadelphia Daily News
    Reviewed by: Ellen Gray
    50
    MacLaine, who apparently decided not to bother to attempt a French accent, isn't served well by a script that essentially has her introducing flashbacks.
  8. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Leah Greenblatt
    42
    Czech actress Barbora Bobulova has the greater misfortune of acting out Harlequin-romance shenanigans amid Pepé le Pew accents. Worst of all, the subject's revolutionary designs are almost entirely marginalized.
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  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Mary McNamara
    40
    A little whitewashing is forgivable in a biopic, but to make a movie about the most influential figure in fashion history in which she spends more time moping around about her boyfriends than she does designing clothes is infuriating.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Ginia Bellafante
    40
    Because it is such a loopy work of hagiography, it is never getting her right.
  11. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    40
    The movie looks great, like a very extended perfume commercial. But it has no substance.

User Reviews

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User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. DianaS
    10
    I thought Shirley MacLaine was wonderful in this part. The young Coco was a delight to watch. It was great to see a movie about the success of a woman that will be remembered for generations by one word "CHANEL"… Full Review »
  2. PaolaL.
    9
    I thought the movie was wonderful.
  3. LilyG.
    10
    Coco Chanel was one of the best movies I have seen on Lifetime in a long time. The actors/actresses were superb, the costumes were fantastic, the accents were delightful, not to mention young Coco's second lover was fun to look at :o) I found the movie very well done and informative. Shirley Mclaine did a fantastic job as the elder Coco. You go Shirley!! I watched it twice. Kudos to Lifetime. You should do more movies like this! I read a blog where someone suggested Merrill Streep...and worse yet, DEMI MOORE to play Coco. Ohhh what goes on in people's minds?… Full Review »
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