Mrs. Harris: Season 1
  • Network: HBO
  • Series Premiere Date: Feb 25, 2006
  • Season #: 1
Mrs. Harris Image
Metascore
70 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.2 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 11 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
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  • Summary: Writer-director Phyllis Nagy's made-for-HBO biopic chronicles the tragic relationship between divorced school headmistress Jean Harris and "Scarsdale Diet" creator Dr. Herman "Hy" Tarnower, which ended with the latter's murder in 1980.
  • Genre(s): Movie/Mini-Series

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 21
  3. Negative: 1 out of 21
  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Doug Elfman
    100
    Scene by scene, "Mrs. Harris" overcomes the rote nature of true crime stories.
  2. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: John Leonard
    80
    Entertaining... What [Nagy] has done is tailor this tabloid material to several different narrative tastes, which alternate as the movie shifts from love affair to temper tantrum to gunfire to murder trial and back again.
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Alessandra Stanley
    60
    In this version, Mrs. Harris, at times appealing, at other times brittle and censorious, is hard to fathom.
  4. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    30
    Pointless and inert.

See all 21 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. Lori
    10
    Refreshingly complex. Brilliant performances. This film does not spell out the motivations and intentions of its characters: the viewer must think and wonder while watching. If only more films would assume that the viewer is up to that task!… Expand
  2. JackK
    10
    Excellent acting, writing, directing. Complicated, funny, asks difficult questions. Should have won all the tv movie awards this year.
  3. SterlingM
    10
    Truly unusual, thought provoking movie with great performances and excellent technical contributions
  4. TedM
    1
    How on earth has this movie managed to get such high ratings. It's one thing to have a movie that's consistently wacked out, like Clockwork Orange or Fear and Loathing in LV, but this movie is all over the place. Sedate one minute, hallucinatory the next, muted and legalistic after that, then Spike Lee-esque, then grindingly tedious, then gonzo. For such a simple story, Nagy makes it extremely convoluted -- in the hopes, I suppose, of making it seem more complex and psychological than the Diet Doc murder really was. The whole thing felt to me like an unpleasant feminist's rants, given while suffering from a bad acid trip.… Expand

See all 10 User Reviews

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