Belle
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: May 2, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
13
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreApr 29, 2014
Beautifully cast, touchingly played and handsomely mounted, Belle is as close to perfect as any costumed romance has a right to be. Read full review
83
The PlaylistKimber MyersMay 19, 2014
Amma Asante’s Belle has every element that costume drama fans love, but it elevates a standard love story by adding larger historical implications and giving us a new perspective on the era. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyApr 30, 2014
Like "Downton Abbey" but with corsets, culottes, and tricorn hats, Belle subtly skewers the absurd rules and hypocrisies of class. But the real takeaway is Mbatha-Raw. She makes a case for why she ought to be a star. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbyMay 12, 2014
The movie is a moralized historical fantasy, mixing love and politics in Old Hollywood style. Yet I can’t bring myself to be indignant about its inventions. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who was born in Oxford and has acted since she was a child, speaks her lines with tremulous emotion and, finally, radiant authority. Austen, I think, would have been thrilled. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 8, 2014
Belle is a beautiful period piece, but it's also something more: a study of racism, classism and sexism in 18th-century England. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMay 5, 2014
Belle does have a clear moral compass, but it refuses easy answers and withholds easy judgments. As such, it feels profoundly human. Read full review
80
TheWrapInkoo KangMay 2, 2014
Belle's extraordinary intelligence is most evident in its slow but satisfying disentanglement of the jumble of privileges and disadvantages that the wealthy, aristocratic, and learned — but also female, half-black, and pitifully sheltered — Dido embodies. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsGraham FullerMay 1, 2014
The serious tone of director Amma Asante’s film goes far in undercutting any gloss. It looks more like a murky Rembrandt than an episode of “Downton Abbey.” Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 15, 2014
With stately surroundings and hissable villains, director Amma Assante imbues the finale with such dramatic resonance that Belle becomes a ringing proclamation of human dignity. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 9, 2014
Belle, with its country manors and its city slums, its snooty nobles and its fiery idealists, its ballroom dances and barroom conspiracies, brings these themes to a dramatic head: romance and race, privilege and justice. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 8, 2014
Belle isn't a perfect movie; in some ways it's obvious. But even if it's not true to history, it's true to that painting and worthy of its inspiration. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryMay 8, 2014
The movie packs a lot in, and the quick pace of early scenes can feel like running on a treadmill, but Belle settles into a nice rhythm. It ends up having all the requisites of a period drama — a strings-heavy soundtrack, lavish costumes and passionate declarations of love — plus a good deal more. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 1, 2014
The layered film's blend of Austen-style romance, courtroom drama and historical look at the British slave trade works surprisingly well, though there are moments — especially involving the conniving suitors — that teeter on melodrama. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedApr 30, 2014
Elegant and understated, Belle is a true story about the effects of slavery on 18th-century England, told in the style of a sweeping romantic saga by Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisMay 1, 2014
The weave of the personal and the political finally proves as irresistible as it is moving, partly because it has been drawn from extraordinary life. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangOct 16, 2013
That the film still works as well as it does is due to not only its polished craftsmanship and disarming comedy-of-manners approach, but also its fascinating insights into the conflicted mindset of British society Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 21, 2014
The material is interesting, and the production values are top-notch. Anushia Nieradzik deserves special notice for her costume design; her luxurious dresses in deep shades of purple and magenta race the pulse more than anything particular in the plot or characterization. It’s all quite well done, if only a touch too decorous. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerMay 17, 2014
What's best about Belle is the performance of Ebatha-Raw. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleMay 15, 2014
It still feels a little like a lesson you’re supposed to learn before you can enjoy anything truly satisfying. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereMay 9, 2014
Needless to say, Belle is a handsome piece of selectively reupholstered history, but its lesson on the victories of social progress in England seems almost as narrowly perceived as Dido’s own view of the world from the immaculately trimmed Mansfield lawns. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramMay 8, 2014
When Asante finally closes with a close-up of Belle’s portrait, there’s something in her eyes and her smile that suggests so much more. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMay 2, 2014
The movie is intelligently written and well-acted, but it doesn’t sit all that comfortably between the two stools of Austenesque Romance and Socially Conscious Drama. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounJun 10, 2014
Sometimes you find yourself wishing for an alternative version of the film unfolding before your eyes. ‘Belle’ is a good-looking and exceedingly polite film where perhaps a more complex one with less good manners would have been better. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJun 10, 2014
Though the inventions of Misan Sagay's script emphasize concerns over dowries and social rank that will be grating for many contemporary viewers, extracting little of the humor that Austen regularly found in such hang-ups, the picture's sour notes are balanced by fine performances and clear historical appeal. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie ErrigoJun 9, 2014
If not a star-making turn, Mbatha-Raw's tough, tender performances should give her plenty of opportunities in sharper fare. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 23, 2014
Still, it's all enjoyable enough, playing out like a cross between "Pride and Prejudice" and "Amistad" -- and a welcome change of pace for those trying to avoid the radioactive spiders and time-traveling mutants that have otherwise invaded the summer movie season. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 1, 2014
Belle is greatly buoyed by Mbatha-Raw's performance. She infuses Dido with a confident and intelligent grace that keeps you engaged long after the tangled story has let both the actress and audience down. Read full review
60
The DissolveNathan RabinMay 1, 2014
As a period production, Belle is gorgeous, dazzling spectacle, replete with ornate costumes, lovely sets, and in Mbatha-Raw, a striking, charismatic lead. But the film never finds a way to invest its narrative with a sense of urgency. Read full review
60
The GuardianHenry BarnesOct 16, 2013
Amma Asante's second feature tells Dido's extraordinary story in handsome, if formulaic, style. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 10, 2014
This effectively turns a story about race into a story about rank. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughMay 8, 2014
Belle has the pace and sumptuous cinematography of a Merchant and Ivory production, but none of their memorable characters, subtle performances, or literate dialogue. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickApr 30, 2014
If you were wondering what “12 Years a Slave” might have been like as a two-part episode of “Masterpiece Theatre,” you might want to check out this unsatisfying but not uninteresting oddity. It renders another historical story about race with exquisite taste but not much in the way of passion. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineTomas HachardApr 27, 2014
The film is concerned largely with intellectual horrors and portrays the fight against slavery rather neatly as a growing feeling of internal guilt that slowly turns society toward the light. Read full review
40
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekApr 29, 2014
There's a great story here, but Asante — who has made one previous feature, the 2004 drama A Way of Life — can't quite harness its power. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 29, 2014
Closer to a special episode of "Diff’rent Strokes" than to "12 Years a Slave," the movie seems to exist to give its white characters belated moments of conscience. Read full review
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