A Good Woman
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: February 6, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
17
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
All in all, A Good Woman retains ye olde Wilde's zing, his sense of pace and place, but most of all his snappy one-liners, and it finds a new way to showcase them brilliantly. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Amazingly, not all of the witty and wise barbs are Wilde's, and any confusion between the old and the new is probably the highest compliment one could possibly pay to screenwriter Howard Himelstein's tart screenplay. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The movie succeeds because screenwriter Howard Himelstein keeps Wilde's best lines intact and the actors speak the words with practiced confidence. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Wilkinson artfully deepens a character who in Wilde's original play was rather boobish. It's a marvelous performance in a pretty good film. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
A witty and engaging bit of fluff about sex, scandal, idleness, gossip, blackmail, guilty secrets and, most surprisingly, redemption. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
The movie is gorgeous to look at, the script has a killer twist and the cast is competent. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Director Mike Barker elicits a marvelously agile performance from Hunt, who's well matched by Tom Wilkinson as her new admirer. Read full review
70
Film ThreatPhil Hall
A pleasant diversion which mixes snatches of Wilde's waspish humor with a stylish Art Deco environment. The result is amusing to the ears and easy on the eyes. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Hunt, whose flutelike voice makes music of Wilde's dialogue, has the most difficult role. While she acquits herself honorably, she nudges her lines a little too broadly, as if she's worried that the audience will miss the double meanings and wordplay. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
For the most part, Wilde's sophisticated, sardonic dialogue has been capably adapted by screenwriter Howard Himelstein and director Mike Barker. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
I watched A Good Woman with a fixed smile frequently interrupted by giggles, but I didn't believe a second of it. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Pleasant and undemanding, all the more so whenever Tom Wilkinson's on-screen as a possible Erlynne suitor, the movie miscasts Hunt as the pragmatic seductress. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Hunt's flat delivery is mercilessly cruel to Wilde's delicious epigrams. That sound you hear is Oscar spinning madly in his grave. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
While screenwriter Howard Himelstein and director Mike Barker have done a workable job of drawing the Wilde social satire out of the drawing room, the film never quite manages to travel at the same buoyant velocity as the acerbic wit. Read full review
50
VarietyDerek Elley
Has a script that plays more like a period romancer studded with occasional Wilde-isms and gets uneven treatment from a mixed Anglo-American cast. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
The trick to staging Wilde is to hint at the gravity beneath the witticisms. A Good Woman barely even gets the witticisms out, though it does contain Wilde's line about people being either tedious or charming. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
A tedious picture, redeemed in part by Tom Wilkinson's performance as Tuppy--he's the sole cast member who doesn't give birth to every epigram--and by the hats. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
The film is well intentioned and mildly diverting, but in attempting to modernize its story it has lost many of the things that make the original so memorable and not gained much in return. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
When put into the mouths of American actors with no feel for Wilde's high-toned repartee, they simply hang in the air and die. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Johansson never looked more beautiful, nor gave a lamer performance, than in A Good Woman. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The real fault with this movie lies less with the clunky screenplay from Himelstein than with the acting, of which there is very little of note. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Something is wrong with A Good Woman: The lightning never strikes. It's never quite alive. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A Good Woman is pretty to look at and fakes witty elegance passably, so consider it a diversion -- a movie that might have been in the Oscar race if the elements had jelled but has instead been properly hung out to dry in February. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
This is one of those movies destined to be watched by family groups who can't agree on what to see: You'll all get a few chuckles, and then it's home for dessert. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
With the two American actresses miscast, and the two young British lads behaving like a couple of "Brideshead Revisited" rejects, most of the dramatic heavy lifting is left to veteran English actor Wilkinson. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Hunt and Johansson, two usually good actresses, are vapidly awful, teetering out of their elements in this shakily drawn period piece. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Stephen Campbell Moore is miserably out of his depth as the playboy trying to tempt Scarlett, leaving poor Tom Wilkinson to sound a lone note of sophisticated intelligence. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
With its jellyfish direction, A Good Woman throws its actors overboard to see if they can swim. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
British director Mike Barker and magpie New York screenwriter Howard Himelstein, have taken "Lady Windermere's Fan" - Wilde's first big stage success, written in 1892 - and pulped it senseless in the name of puttin' on the charm. Read full review
More From This Movie

53 Critic Reviews

6.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 86 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2 84 Are You There God? It's Me,...
3 78 John Wick: Chapter 4
4 75 Polite Society
5 73 Air
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL