Iris
Miramax Films | Release Date: December 14, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
First and foremost, Iris is a magnificent story about the enduring bond between two eccentric, astounding souls who somehow managed to find each other and hold on for dear life. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Director Richard Eyre has struck gold. Twice. Dench and Winslet are a riveting matchup. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Splendid. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Intelligent, poignant film. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A saga of unbearable sadness and romantic beauty. Read full review
90
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Not just a fitting document of a life brilliantly lived but a vibrant, almost palpitating piece of cinema. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The union of thought and feeling becomes flesh and blood thanks to four brilliant performers in Iris. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Despite the sad denouement, it's still the love story of the year. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's a powerful, affecting tale that uses scenes of the young couple's new love as a counterpoint to Iris' final days - memories of a brightest spring echoing in the darkest depths of winter. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
The film is so crisply acted and smartly drawn that you barely notice the cracks in the veneer. Read full review
80
SalonCharles Taylor
Suffers from PBS syndrome, but Dame Judi Dench cures with a moving portrayal of life with Alzheimer's. Read full review
80
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
Dench is wholly extraordinary in a characterization that is frequently muted, literally and necessarily. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
The film is not a biopic or a portrait of a famous marriage so much as it is an imaginative essay on what made a union between two radically different people work as well as it did. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
Iris is difficult to watch, given that it requires you to witness the transformation of the title character from a literate, vibrant woman to the ghost of her former self. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It may not be a great movie, but the acting in it is amazing. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The movie's most artful feature is the fluidity with which the past slides into the present, echoing Murdoch's own unmoored sentience, so that the younger self, played with dash and vigor by Kate Winslet, turns into the old woman lost in her own home. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
A delicately upbeat, even humorous celebration of love and sacrifice.
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A story with a beginning and end but without a middle. Two slices of bread without the sandwich meat, I wrote in my notes. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's good, but not great -- despite the heights to which Dench and Broadbent drive it. But those heights are lofty, the pain still stings. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Though Iris is extremely well-acted and beautifully photographed, some audience members may find themselves agreeing with Bayley's frustrated complaint: "I've never known who you are." Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Dench and Winslet give strong and creative performances, and Broadbent is positively brilliant as old Bayley. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
By continually interrupting the sequences of the adult couple with scenes of the young pair, Eyre shatters the emotional power of Dench and Broadbent. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
I regretted it most when the temporal hopscotching took me away from Ms. Winslet's portrait of the writer as a young sensualist, madly smitten by words and life.
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
It's a great achievement, quiet enough to allow room for her excellent supporting cast -- but strong enough to be felt over James Horner's omnipresent, typically overbearing score. Read full review
70
VarietyDerek Elley
A triumph on the casting side but less so dramatically, Richard Eyre's Iris fails to do full justice to its subject. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Even though I appreciate this movie's craft, I wish I hadn't seen it. It's a heady, progressive -- or perhaps elaborately conservative? -- romance, but it's also a tale of terrible suffering. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJoy Press
Some critics wondered if "Elegy for Iris" was an act of revenge or reverence. The film, like the book, leaves behind a sad and sour image: of an indomitable woman gradually infantilized by glitches in her brain chemistry, and the man who finally is allowed to take custody of her. Read full review
50
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
A glacially-paced disease-of-the-week movie blown up to big screen size. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Rarely does a movie feel as leaden-footed as Iris, especially when it tries to bounce back and forth. The audience is transported between two very obvious stories and becomes slightly irritated by the grinding inevitability of both of them. As a result, Iris Murdoch gets lost in the shuffle. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Because the film is well-acted and written with intelligence, it might be worth seeing, despite my objections. I suspect my own feelings. Read full review
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