Effie Gray
Adopt Films | Release Date: April 3, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
18
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Slant MagazineMatt BrennanMar 28, 2015
It spins the narrative of one of the Victorian art world's most mysterious marriages into a study of life lived and life merely examined, a fecund fairy tale in reverse. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 3, 2015
Effie Gray is peculiarly compelling, even if the issue of sexual repression, all the Victorian manners, seem light-years gone and close to unfathomable. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleThomas LeeApr 2, 2015
The film spends an excessive amount of time on Ruskin’s psychological abuse of his wife, which makes Effie’s eventual redemption feel rushed and out of the blue. But Thompson has once again proved herself to be a talented wordsmith, imbuing Effie with generosity of spirit and intelligence. Read full review
70
TheWrapInkoo KangApr 2, 2015
Laxton’s measured pace appropriately parallels the slow stifling that Effie undergoes, but he extends his muted approach too far, depriving the film of the emotional crescendo it badly needs. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranApr 2, 2015
Effie Gray is fortunate to have enough strong performances by Fanning, Thompson and top-flight costars (including cameos by James Fox, Robbie Coltrane, Derek Jacobi and even Claudia Cardinale) to eventually overcome the doldrums of decorum and create the feeling we've been needing. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 3, 2015
Wise, who is noticeably older than the 29-year-old Ruskin was at the time the events occurred in real life, gives a tense, implacable performance, and Fanning is touching. The movie, however, directed by Richard Laxton, could use a lot more oomph. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryApr 4, 2015
Laxton knows how to get the audience down but hasn’t quite mastered the art of lifting them back up. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comDan CallahanApr 3, 2015
As Ruskin, Thompson’s real-life husband Greg Wise looks exactly like surviving photographs of the man he is playing: handsome, gloomy, lofty, and a little blank and bland. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughApr 2, 2015
Though programmatic in its plotting, “Effie” does aspire to obliqueness in its imagery. In “Mr. Turner,” Leigh evokes the painter of the title in the film’s stunning visuals. In “Effie,” the pseudo-medieval lushness and literalness of the Pre-Raphaelites permeates much of cinematography by Andrew Dunn. Read full review
63
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeApr 1, 2015
Intrigue doesn’t begin until the last third of the movie, which is by far the best part. The Victorian melodrama in Effie Gray works better than the Victorian suffering. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriApr 6, 2015
Fanning’s controlled presence is ideal for a tale of Victorian repression. But as the film becomes one of quiet liberation, it needs more than her cool reserve. It needs passion — even if it’s of the slow-boiling kind — and I’m not sure that’s there. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghApr 4, 2015
The film itself begins to feel like Gray, a pretty bird in a gilded cage with nowhere to fly. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 9, 2015
It’s a little hammy and soapy, with an occasional Pythonesque sense of its own importance but this film, directed by Richard Laxton, is performed with gusto. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyJan 9, 2015
There are clever and sensitive touches right through, and a moving ending. But Fanning seems wholly uncomfortable, and not always intentionally. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeJan 9, 2015
It’s a thoughtful, well-acted and perceptive drama. However, for a film about a love triangle the sparks don’t exactly fly. Read full review
60
Total FilmJosh WinningJan 9, 2015
Richard Laxton’s painterly film combines the gothic shadows of Hitchcock’s Rebecca with the gut-wrenching romance of A Royal Affair. The result is dark and offbeat, but as a murky anti-romance, Gray is undeniably effective. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianJeff BakerJul 14, 2015
The movie is slow, dreary, clumsily staged, and lacks a compelling lead. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 2, 2015
The cinematic equivalent of a Brazilian wax, the movie omits much of the story’s most interesting material to create something that’s been smoothly denatured. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleApr 2, 2015
This period piece, directed by Richard Laxton, is shot in such a grim and grainy fashion you long to turn on the lights — which is fitting, because you also wish the filmmakers had illuminated the characters a bit more clearly. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerApr 2, 2015
On a purely technical level, Effie Gray is fine, if uninspired, with its washed-out color, attention to detail, and lack of heavy-handed moralizing. As an experience, though, it’s a drag without much reward. Read full review
50
The DissolveMike D'AngeloApr 2, 2015
Thompson makes Ruskin such a cardboard villain, playing on stereotypes of the cold, stuffy intellectual, that she turns Gray’s story into a tastefully dreary domestic-prison saga. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedApr 1, 2015
Written by Emma Thompson, it’s literate and respectful, but a dose of lithium in a champagne glass that is too stolid to ever come alive. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 31, 2015
Whatever “it” is, that spark that film actresses and actors have that makes them interesting and empathetic and anything else on the screen, Fanning doesn’t have it. Read full review
50
VarietyGuy LodgeJan 9, 2015
This admirable, watercolor-delicate tale of individual feminist emancipation never quite blooms into living color, hampered by spotty casting and Richard Laxton’s overly deliberate direction. Read full review
40
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekMar 31, 2015
You can feel the good intentions vibrating off the screen, but it's still a listless affair, one that takes forever to go almost nowhere. The picture struggles so valiantly to be a woman's empowerment fable that it leaves you wishing for just a little romance. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid EhrlichMar 31, 2015
So while the film clearly wants to be an affirmation of female agency, it plays instead like nothing more than the story of a girl who marries an ogre and waits to be freed by true love’s kiss. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonJan 9, 2015
Effie Gray is an exquisitely dreary slice of middlebrow armchair theater which adds little new to a much-filmed story. Read full review
40
EmpireAngie ErrigoJan 9, 2015
Handsome, well-mounted but dull, dull, dull. Read full review
More From This Movie

54 Critic Reviews

5.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL