Bride & Prejudice

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Under the direction of "Bend It Like Beckham's" Gurinder Chadha, this festively busy and exuberantly multicultural charmer is its own intriguingly postmodern creation.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's "knowingly" off-the-rails--and if you're in a tolerant or adventurous mood, very entertaining.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Lightweight but utterly beguiling.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Bright, colorful, and exhilarating.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Good, clean fun, and the view is fabulous.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This plot, recycled from Austen, is the clothesline for a series of dance numbers that, like Hong Kong action sequences, are set in unlikely locations and use props found there; how else to explain the sequence set in, yes, a Mexican restaurant?

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Leah McLaren

It's the small, smelly details that elevate this Indian-fusion retelling of Jane Austen's classic novel from trifle to bona-fide delight.

Washington Post Teresa Wiltz

A big, sprawling, sweet-natured mishmash with plots upon subplots and enough characters to make the head spin.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Aside from the singing and dancing, it is the color and pageantry of India as filtered through the work of cinematographer Santosh Sivan that captivates us.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Works because of its heedless, heart-on-its-sleeve spirit.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Like an Elvis Presley musical from the '60s, filled with shiny bright colors, bouncy music and happy, smiling, pretty people.

Variety Derek Elley

Austen nuts may rend their frocks, and Bollywood buffs may split their cholis, but there's an immensely likable, almost goofily playful charm to Bride & Prejudice that finally wins the day.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Here's yet another take on "Pride and Prejudice,"...but all spiced up as colorfully as a dish of curry.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

It's got practically everything you could stuff in front of a camera, with the possible exception of Rip Taylor throwing confetti. Dancing transvestites? Check. Elephants? Check.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

You could do worse for a date movie than Gurinder Chadha's campy, exuberant cross-cultural take on Austen's much-filmed 1812 novel.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Bride has atmosphere and charm, but the exotic flavors have often been toned down to avoid complaints.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The mere idea of making a musical version of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day India is delicious, though, and Chadha's lively imagination and good intentions almost make the concept work.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A Hollywood take on a Bollywood movie. But the Bollywood portions - echoing over-the-top Indian movie musicals - are far more entertaining than the Hollywood segments.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The film is uniquely spirited, radiating the exuberance and sexual heat of an Elvis musical, a characteristic shared by its songs and dances.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Unfortunately, it's also pretty banal -- translating the songs into English reveals just how dull their lyrics and sentiments really are. The colors are pretty though.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

It is a truth universally acknowledged that had Jane Austen lived to see the profits that have been squeezed from her most marketable premise, she'd doubtless have wept, then lobbied for her share of the royalties.

Time Richard Corliss

Heart and art can make a beguiling pair. Those are mostly missing in this strained hybrid, which is less Bollywood than Follywood.

Newsweek David Ansen

This clumsy attempt to merge Jane Austen's classic with Bollywood musical conventions falls painfully flat.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Money can't buy happiness, but as Bride and Prejudice teaches us, it can get patience in bulk from a smart young woman of a practical mind-set.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The characters quickly succumb to stereotype.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

It’s very colorful, for sure, but the dialogue is lead-footed at best.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Gloriously seductive musical sequences seem suddenly hokey and self-conscious when they're staged in Western settings, and the songs' English-language lyrics are painfully banal.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A painlessly light introduction to Bollywood moviemaking, but it far too often feels like run-of-the-mill Hollywood fare.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

In attempting to show us a love blind to class, culture, and color, she's (Chadha) also made it bland.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Lacks even mild drama.

Empire Anna Smith

It has charm, comedy and a populist concept, but is structurally weak and too self-consciously multicultural.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Chadha doesn't seem at home with either Austen or Bollywood, and her ambitions far exceed her competence in the song-and-dance numbers, which are a clutter of stiff choreography and silly original lyrics.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The comedy of manners becomes strictly a comedy of bad manners.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

As high concept and rife with cliché as anything ever churned out by Hollywood, but with worse production values and a load of sanctimonious political correctness.