The Bridesmaid
First Run Features | Release Date: August 4, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
The touch of sharp and edgy storytelling has returned to French master Claude Chabrol. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A classic of realistic terror, in which passion and murder can't lie buried. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel 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. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Deceptively understated and finally ferocious. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley 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. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth 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. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson 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. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The Bridesmaid is fairly familiar Chabrol country, an exploration of the psychological undercurrent of the bourgeoisie, with heavy helpings of black comedy. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
The film flawlessly glides along as bodies start piling up. The finale brings to mind another Hitchcock film, "Psycho." Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen 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. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Claude Chabrol has a wonderful way of making audiences nervous. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy 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. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean 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. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterRay 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. Read full review
70
VarietyDeborah 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. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael 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. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A prickly, twisted, mean-spirited, borderline crazy and highly seductive picture. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
This 2004 French feature seems concerned not so much with the psychopathology of everyday life as with psychopaths who lurk behind the everyday. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie 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. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A merrily macabre things-we-do-for-love yarn. Read full review
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