Lady Chatterley's Lover
Netflix | Release Date: November 23, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
TheWrapTomris LafflySep 4, 2022
Often draped over each other like a pair of gorgeous statues, O’Donnell and Corrin strike palpable chemistry throughout, selling both their desire for one another and the consequent love born out of it believably. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattNov 23, 2022
An unabashedly heady romance, rich in pretty costumes — when they're wearing them — and lush, lusty atmosphere. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 2, 2022
Though Lawrence’s views of sex overall were complicated and sometimes contradictory, and not always what you’d call progressive, Clermont-Tonnerre and her actors draw from his ideas with clear-eyed generosity, presenting them so that they feel fresh as a new crocus. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlan NgDec 1, 2022
Lady Chatterley’s Lover has the look, feel, and beauty of your Merchant-Ivory high-brow English dramas. Simply add sex and nudity. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 29, 2022
Love and sex, two things taken so casually for granted in so many different kinds of story, here become totemic articles of faith. Lady Chatterley still has the power to move. Read full review
80
Little White LiesPatrick SproullNov 23, 2022
What distinguishes Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s newest interpretation from its predecessors is its deft, mature understanding of what makes both Lady Chatterley and her lover tick. Read full review
78
The AtlanticShirley LiDec 9, 2022
De Clermont-Tonnerre understands that the lovers’ behavior and Lawrence’s social commentary no longer spur much pearl-clutching, so instead, she surprises viewers by adding uncanny elements to her most explicit scenes. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 29, 2022
It’s crisply paced and, although there are times when Lady Chatterley’s Lover seems like little more than an intellectually-approved bodice-ripper, it’s an impressively mounted production that looks good and is emotionally true to the characters and their era. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 28, 2022
This adaptation does not allow for the energy and primal healing quality of sexuality. The movie’s grief of tone finds no antidote in the exuberance of this physical connection. The rhapsodic language of Lawrence’s text gives way to the spectacle of grinding between two average-looking mortals. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyNov 23, 2022
You feel you are running alongside the characters, trying to catch up with them on their journeys forward. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineAurora AmidonDec 5, 2022
At face value, Lady Chatterley’s Lover works well enough as a love story: It’s sweet, moderately sexy and sticks pretty religiously to Lawrence’s compelling story. But for a film based on a book that scandalized thousands, it will undoubtedly leave its viewer wanting more. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrOct 17, 2022
Unfortunately, Lady Chatterley’s Lover circa 2022 fails to deliver the degree of bodice-ripping drama for which D.H. Lawrence adaptations are well known. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 6, 2022
Even as she preserves the essential particulars of an oft-told story, de Clermont-Tonnerre draws out Lawrence’s feminism and class rage with a welcome forthrightness that occasionally translates into some overly emphatic dialogue. But as in any decent reimagining of this story, the emotional and sensual force of the central romance renders language irrelevant, body language excepted. Read full review
67
ColliderEmma KielyDec 8, 2022
It’s the refreshingly modern and tender depiction of intimacy and pleasure that will stay with me. After years upon years of sex scenes that are steeped in the male gaze or are shoehorned in to attract the money of horny youngsters who have no real interest in the story, it’s about time we treat sex with the tenderness, openness, and grace that it deserves on film — and this is exactly what Lady Chatterley’s Lover does. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubJordan HoffmanNov 30, 2022
While witnessing the physical act of love on screen can sometimes transcend into something with great depth, this is, sorry to say, not one of those cases. It’s just a lot of huffing and puffing. Read full review
67
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodSep 4, 2022
Magee’s script doesn’t always give them enough material to play with, but Corrin runs with it and, most impressively, with a freedom that totally clicks with de Clermont-Tonnerre’s sensibilities. And yet, when the credits roll it feels like something is missing and, well, you somehow wish they’d pushed it even more. Read full review
67
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 4, 2022
Despite the stars’ strong performances and the high level of craft, the film struggles in its final act. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckNov 30, 2022
Lawrence’s novel may have been shocking when it was published — most famously, it was the subject of a major obscenity trial in Britain — but it is not shocking now, no matter how frank the sex scenes. So any adaptation needs more to distinguish it than heaving bodies, however attractive. Read full review
60
The IndependentJessie ThompsonDec 2, 2022
What we get is a film that’s watchable, when it could have been wonderful. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 1, 2022
Magee and Clermont-Tonnerre’s adaptation emphasizes the romance of Lawrence’s book over the radicalism of his vision. This Lady Chatterley’s Lover is faithful to the novel, while also revealing how safe, how domesticated, it has become. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 29, 2022
There’s a feverish wildness to Corrin’s performance, while O’Connell unleashes the full force of his considerable charisma. Read full review
60
EmpireCaitlin QuinlanNov 28, 2022
A sweepingly romantic take on the D.H. Lawrence classic that, while not offering anything revolutionary to the period drama genre, is a satisfying and engaging watch. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleNov 23, 2022
Clermont-Tonnerre’s emphasis on playfulness and energy is understandable, but an opportunity to bring back a layered epicness to sex on film feels lost. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 4, 2022
In the end, the couple’s chemistry is off the charts, and that’s all that matters — though there’s still a too-tasteful David Hamilton-like quality to it all. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineWilliam RepassNov 23, 2022
However faithfully the film transposes the plot and themes of the source material, it struggles to capture the spirit, ironing out D.H. Lawrence’s modernity-skeptical modernism and losing sight of his poetic vision. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesTara BradyDec 2, 2022
The pretty pictures and silhouetted, sanitised sex will do well enough for Bridgerton fans, but the material has strayed so far from the source, one wonders why they kept the title. Read full review
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