New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
xx Baby on Board
xx Bob Funk
62 Cherry Blossoms
38 Confessions of a Shopaholic
38 Crossing Over
38 Dark Streets
58 Defiance
45 Fanboys
31 Fired Up
37 Forever Strong
34 Friday the 13th
72 Gran Torino
47 He's Just Not That Into You
47 Inkheart
52 International, The
45 Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
50 Madea Goes to Jail
51 Morning Light
51 My Bloody Valentine 3-D
29 New in Town
28 Nobel Son
40 Outlander
39 Paul Blart: Mall Cop
56 Phoebe in Wonderland
36 Pink Panther 2
xx Powder Blue
69 Revolutionary Road
20 Spinning Into Butter
17 Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
64 Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
63 Tokyo!
74 Two Lovers
56 Valkyrie
91 Waltz with Bashir
22 What Goes Up

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Bridesmaid, The (La Demoiselle d'Honneur)
First Run Features

Bridesmaid, The (La Demoiselle d'Honneur) reviews


7.6

based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Benoît Magimel, Laura Smet, Aurore Clément, Bernard Le Coq, Solène Bouton, Anna Mihalcea, Michel Duchaussoy, and Suzanne Flon

It's love at first sight when bridesmaid Senta falls into the life handsome young Philippe at the wedding of his younger sister. Though their passion for each other is as obvious as it is unquestionable, Philippe soon discovers that Senta's life is shrouded in mystery and her stories surrounding her past anything but believable. When one day she asks Philippe for a terrible proof of his love, Philippe must come to terms with who his lover might really be. But is this just another of Senta’s fantastic tales? And how far is Philippe willing to go, even as his love for her seems to know no limits? (First Run Features)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign \| Romance \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Claude Chabrol Pierre Leccia Ruth Rendell (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Claude Chabrol
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 20, 2007 Theatrical: August 4, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / Germany / Italy
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

Original title "La Demoiselle d'Honneur"

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...

Miami Herald Marta Barber

The touch of sharp and edgy storytelling has returned to French master Claude Chabrol.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A classic of realistic terror, in which passion and murder can't lie buried.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

The Bridesmaid goes slack at times, as it follows multiple Magimel family subplots, but as always, Chabrol stages everything with an elegant economy, moving the camera in short bursts that direct the eye but don't distract. Still, the movie would fail completely if not for the dynamic between the two leads.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Deceptively understated and finally ferocious.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Chabrol insured the power of this dangerously difficult film with perfect casting. The two lovers are so well acted that their story--and its finish--are incredibly convincing.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Chabrol arranges his story with a subtle, almost clinical accumulation. And it takes close attention to the movie's seemingly innocuous details to understand his deeper purposes.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Claude Chabrol makes his particular kind of unnerving, deliciously amoral thrillers look easy. Once you've made as many of them as he has, they probably are.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Chabrol's deliberate and drawn-out observations often work against the dramatic tension, but his gift is making the audience believe that emotion and obsession trump logic for these deluded characters.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

If The Bridesmaid is middle-drawer Chabrol, it's almost worth going to just to watch Laura Smet, a vamp of not-so-basic instinct.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Claude Chabrol has a wonderful way of making audiences nervous.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

The film flawlessly glides along as bodies start piling up. The finale brings to mind another Hitchcock film, "Psycho."

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The Bridesmaid is fairly familiar Chabrol country, an exploration of the psychological undercurrent of the bourgeoisie, with heavy helpings of black comedy.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The film reveals its secrets slowly, and Chabrol tightens the screws not according to the rules of Hollywood suspense but with a cool, level gaze.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A prickly, twisted, mean-spirited, borderline crazy and highly seductive picture.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Based on the novel by Ruth Rendell, the film could do well with audiences who have a taste for creepy films about murder in the suburbs.

Variety Deborah Young

At 74, Chabrol is in full possession of his talent for elegant, understated filmmaking, though he's far from his disturbing films of the '50s and '60s.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Chabrol sets us up, of course, which is half the fun, and the experience is a delight for lack of pomposity (his visual storytelling remains no-nonsense) as well as genre expertise.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This 2004 French feature seems concerned not so much with the psychopathology of everyday life as with psychopaths who lurk behind the everyday.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The final payoff is a good one and relates to something tossed out in the film's opening minutes. Still, this is middling Chabrol, not as tight and suspenseful as his best work.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A merrily macabre things-we-do-for-love yarn.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Paul K. gave it an8:
I enjoyed this on so many different levels. <***SPOILER****> The acting was consistantly good and although the story wasn't as solid as it could have been, the ambigous climatic ending was pitch perfect. If you have an interest, definitely see this in the theater or on video.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page

Bridesmaid, The (La Demoiselle d'Honneur) First Run Features

Bridesmaid, The (La Demoiselle d'Honneur)
First Run Features