Colette
Bleecker Street | Release Date: September 21, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ObserverRex ReedSep 21, 2018
The best and most lavishly appointed, gorgeously photographed period movie in years. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicSamantha IncorvaiaSep 27, 2018
When every aspect of a movie comes together, it's a beautiful sight. Read full review
85
Film Journal InternationalErica AbeelSep 20, 2018
Knightley shines in period films (Anna Karenina, Pride & Prejudice) and here inflects Colette with a boldness and forthrightness that create a bridge between Belle Epoque Paris and today's zeitgeist. Read full review
83
Original-CinJim SlotekOct 1, 2018
Colette is ultimately a feminist tale, but never one that wallows in self-pity or seriousness. It is also carried along lightly by a script with a streak of wit. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeJan 16, 2019
Particularly intriguing are the scenes in which Colette’s travails become the stuff of pantomime in the form of increasingly provocative theatrical productions, staged with a hint of carnivalesque chaos and evoking the spirit of Fellini. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 14, 2019
This is a highly enjoyable and bracing piece of work from Wash Westmoreland. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyJan 10, 2019
For all its promised rebellion, Colette’s story really segues into a more nuanced tale of outgrowing: not just a childish and bullying spouse, but an age of acquiescence. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraJan 2, 2019
All the affairs and scandals that a French literary genius could wish for, with the bonus of a modern heroine and a story that acknowledges the diversity that has always been with us. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneSep 24, 2018
Knightley and West leap without a qualm into these excesses, not least the Feydeau-like saga of a flame-haired Louisiana heiress (Eleanor Tomlinson), who sleeps with both Willy and his wife, unbeknownst to her, though he beknew everything. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyAlan ScherstuhlSep 20, 2018
As her marriage opens up, and Colette begins to take lovers of her own, Knightley summons up a moving sense of both relief and recklessness. This Colette is thrilled suddenly to have new options, but she’s committed to pushing for more. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 20, 2018
Colette is an origin story, a tale of metamorphosis rather than of already formed greatness. What interests Mr. Westmoreland is how a self-described country girl became a woman of the world, a transformation that in its deeper, more intimately mysterious registers remains out of reach of this movie and of the hard-working Ms. Knightley. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 20, 2018
This is the firebrand Colette that Knightley plays with every fiber of her being. She’s something to see. Read full review
80
SlateAlex BaraschSep 19, 2018
The script, co-written by director Wash Westmoreland; his late husband, Richard Glatzer; and Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Disobedience), is fun, delightfully sharp, and at times surprisingly tender. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 19, 2018
Westmoreland means to celebrate Colette the literary titan and bisexual pioneer, and to dissolve your initial outrage at her mistreatment in a warm bath of feel-good satisfaction. But he also wants to paint a lively, credible portrait of a genuinely complicated marital arrangement and to show how one woman’s genius could flourish even amid so much oppression and compromise. Read full review
80
The GuardianJordan Hoffman
Wash Westmoreland’s Colette is exhilarating, funny, inspiring and (remember: corsets!) gorgeous, too. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim Grierson
Although director Wash Westmoreland tackles several serious subjects — sexual liberation, the repression of women’s voices, the power of art to change society — the movie has such a playful spirit that the talking points go down smoothly. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter Debruge
Less stuffy literary biopic than ever-relevant female-empowerment saga, Colette ranks as one of the great roles for which Keira Knightley will be remembered. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 17, 2018
Knightley and West create spectacular friction in these roles, two people who loved, collaborated and rubbed each other the wrong way and the right way, and from that, a great artist was created, shaped and immortalized — with a little help from her lawyers. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 8, 2018
It doesn’t offer a story of any surprising depth or emotional strength. It’s straightforward which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the limitations of this telling of Colette’s life is defined by a familiar quality. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 30, 2018
The marriage on view here, a little ridiculous, a little galling but full of interesting sharp edges, presents Knightley and West with a full array of emotions to explore. The tone remains deceptively light, but it feels both true and in period. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldSep 27, 2018
Here, the focus is on Knightley, who delivers some of her best work. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSep 26, 2018
Colette is never dazzling. It has erotic elements, but nothing like “Becoming Colette,” which is, on balance, a weaker film. There’s not a single great scene. But there is no scene that is less than intelligent. Colette is smart, conscientious and absorbing, and gradually, in its diligent way, achieves a certain fascination. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comNell MinowSep 21, 2018
The chemistry is palpable between Knightley and West, whether they are in love or estranged, and Knightley gives one of her best performances as a girl with spirit and talent who becomes a woman with ferocity and a voice. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorSep 12, 2018
Colette is a satisfyingly conventional biopic about a highly unconventional woman. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePeter GoldbergSep 5, 2018
It's the film's concerted emphasis on Colette's ambivalent nature and desires that reveals her to be an artist just ahead of her time, fighting against, yet seduced by, her present. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJordan Ruimy
If only more period pieces these days were as finely tuned and accessibly pleasurable as Westmoreland’s film. Read full review
75
Vanity FairRichard Lawson
I love how open and casual this film is about Colette’s budding queerness, how it eschews any awkward coming out or pains-of-the-closet stuff. Instead it simply revels in Colette’s sexual and romantic freedom, suggesting that it was just that looseness, that liberation that gave her writing such verve. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid Ehrlich
Colette is a costume drama for people who have yet to figure out that they love costume dramas. It’s fleet enough after that first act, and the squeezed plotting of its second half ensures the story never gets too long in the tooth. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonSep 20, 2018
Colette is not really a coming-of-age story, except as regards France itself. It’s a liberation story, one witty enough to be worthy of its subject. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
It is an engaging literary coming-of-age story, and one embodied ably by its star. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily Yoshida
Politeness may be the film’s weakest point, whether with its characters or bedroom scenes. But it’s hardly something to complain about, especially when the company is this lively. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiOct 3, 2018
Colette is a good primer for a wonderful author, and a reflection on how your life will never turn out as you think. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonOct 3, 2018
We're meant to thrill at Colette's emancipation, but when she breaks it off with wild Willy and finds true love (with Denise Gough) for the first time – built on respect and honest affection — it looks dreadfully dull. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughSep 26, 2018
Westmoreland’s narrative is cluttered with undeveloped subplots and loose ends. He compensates by evoking the era with images drawing from painters like Gustave Caillebotte and Toulouse-Lautrec and soundtrack music that ranges from Strauss-like waltzes to Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédies.” Read full review
63
Washington PostKristen Page-KirbySep 26, 2018
Colette’s story is a good one — she went on to produce multiple works under her own name, the best known of which is “Gigi” — but here it’s shakily told. As a tale about a woman whose life was defined by fire, Colette lacks much of a spark. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleSep 26, 2018
In broad strokes, Westmoreland’s film succeeds as an inspirational period tale so much for today about a woman seizing her independence. Read full review
60
CineVueMaximilian Von ThunJan 14, 2019
While it is hard to imagine its themes of gender fluidity and female empowerment not resonating with contemporary audiences, Wash and his fellow screenwriters make these parallels irritatingly obvious, to the extent that characters constantly say and do things that feel implausibly millennial, and caricatures (especially male ones) abound. Read full review
60
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanSep 21, 2018
As a traditional period biopic, it checks all the boxes in fine fashion. But you’d never know it was inspired by a woman whose life was expansive and contradictory and unwieldy in the extreme. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubVikram MurthiSep 19, 2018
Colette too frequently coasts on its timeliness, preferring catharsis to nuance. Read full review
40
Film ThreatFilipe FreitasJan 22, 2019
A lot was left behind in this depthless account of a disaffected ghostwriter who wanted to affirm her artistic gift, freely and publicly. She actually did it with bravery and conviction, but this film doesn’t do her justice. Hence, my suggestion is: save your ticket money and read Colette’s biography instead. Read full review
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