And Now Ladies and Gentlemen

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The good news about Claude Lelouch's And Now Ladies and Gentlemen -- there's no bad news -- is that the man who made the sublimely superficial "A Man and a Woman" almost four decades ago has grown in wisdom and artistry, but hasn't lost his love of glossy surfaces.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

For those of us who find Lelouch an unbreakable habit -- the guiltiest of guilty pleasures -- watching And Now Ladies & Gentlemen comes close to sheer moviegoing bliss.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The perfect summer tonic for mature audiences looking for sophisticated escape. It's filled with beautiful people in gorgeous, exotic locales.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The core relationship is what makes the movie with this ill-advised title a well-advised choice.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Has a goofy enthusiasm for itself that's contagious.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

All told, it’s two-plus hours of trinkets and baubles and clever repartée beneath a perfect summer sun and beside the whitewashed walls of Fez, not inconsequential but as ephemeral as the sky above.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A movie best suited for a lazy afternoon or a languorous night, particularly if you're a Francophile. Charming, glamorous, emotionally suggestive but slight, it's full of beautiful and colorful people.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is so extravagant and outrageous in its storytelling that it resists criticism: It's self-satirizing.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue

For those who don't know his (Lelouch's) work, And Now Ladies and Gentlemen will be fun because his style is unique and unpredictable. But for those who have known him in better form, this one is not a must-see.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

The cinematic equivalent of a beautifully wrapped gift box with nothing inside.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

According to common usage, the French word stupide comes closer to silly than to dumb, which is how I might rationalize my affection for this harebrained, obvious, but euphoric tale.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Though the director's jet-set fantasy world of rugged jewel thieves and sailboat races, triste cabaret singers and sybaritic pleasures may feel dated and more than a little decadent, it is a nice enough place to visit.

Variety Derek Elley

A good-looking but slim confection that's short on the multi-characterisation and sense of entwined destinies that mark the great Lelouch sagas.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

The film isn't so much a demanding character study as it is a lot of pretty parts pushed together.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It works for a little while, but an Irons-narrated slideshow of the region would have worked just as well.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The director has said that the plot was influenced by a real English thief named Valentin who showed up at his door one day to repay money stolen a decade earlier.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The tone moves from gently jocular (Irons appears in drag) to mystically morose (a female shaman tries to ululate up a cure), and that creates a jarring effect from which the movie does not recover.

TV Guide Ken Fox

When characters aren't quoting Alfred de Musset, they're speaking in aphorisms of their own, and the dialogue is stylized and stilted. Happily, Kaas, one of France's most popular jazz singers, has a sensuous, sonorous voice, and Lelouch uses it as often as possible; in many ways, the film is a musical.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's too insubstantial to support its two-hour-plus running time, and too arbitrary to work as a story, so you walk out wondering not happened, but whether anything actually did.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Like a Bond picture with no spies or villains or car chases or gadgets or explosions.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

It's fitting. Valentin and Jane may be awakening from life's slumber, but mostly they're just putting us to sleep.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

One part cabaret, one part travelogue, one part comic heist, one part romantic tearjerker -- and all pretty tedious.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Has little to offer beyond muzzy kismet and generalized amnesia, a bit of National Geographic and a lot of cocktail jazz.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Awash in the kind of pretension that only the French can get away with.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

An exercise in vanity, indulgence and a startling degree of shallowness.