Le divorce
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: August 8, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
16
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A relaxed delight, a series of delicately tongue-in-cheek musings about the clash between American and French cultures. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Acted with relish by a note-perfect cast -- a romantic comedy of true sophistication. There's a sting in every laugh. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
While there are too many characters in too much story for the movie to really involve us, it's amusing as a series of sketches about how the French think they are a funny race (or the Americans, take your choice). Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
No masterpiece, but that shouldn't dissuade moviegoers from giving it a whirl as a flavorful alternative to the summer's more gimmicky fare. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Captures the effervescence and playfulness of Johnson's novel, even as it attempts to shoehorn a tangle of characters and situations. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
In this episodic film with a soupcon of "Sex and the City" (just as the Merchant Ivory Slaves of New York presaged the HBO hit), cross-cultural misunderstanding, not character, is the point. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The actors and acting are so attractive--as is, per usual in a Merchant Ivory production, the scenery--that the movie’s less deft handling of the scenario’s various themes, not to mention some stumbling in the final quarter, when the story’s tone grows a little darker, doesn’t stand out as much as it might have. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
This present-day Paris of Le Divorce is smartly shot and costumed, and the whole affair is breezy and uncharacteristically insouciant, given the reserved nature of the folks responsible for it. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
As in other Ivory-Jhabvala adaptations, ritzy consumerism is very much on display, but what makes this better than most is Johnson's amused admiration for nearly all her characters, regardless of nationality. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
One minor element in Le Divorce, the sale of a disputed and possibly valuable painting that once belonged to Watts' family, welcomes scene-stealing bits by Bebe Neuwirth and Stephen Fry as appraisers with clashing motives. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Utterly charming and not without those subtle insights into character and culture that mark their (Merchant Ivory) best films. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
An almost too-sophisticated comedy, pitting the New World mentality and brash pugnaciousness of America against the staid arrogance of custom that defines the French bourgeoisie. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A tasty bonbon, initially appealing but not terribly satisfying. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Characters are left half-developed or undeveloped so that as much plot as possible can be crammed into two hours. The result, while not wholly unsatisfying, will disappoint those used to the cinematic richness we have come to expect from this collaboration. Read full review
63
New York PostJonathan Foreman
Though not as witty or accomplished as you'd expect from its pedigree, "Le Divorce" provides welcome relief from the lame-brained trash Hollywood has foisted on the public this summer. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
For a movie that boasts a murder, a would-be suicide and the usual generous helping of screwing around à la français, Le Divorce is remarkably calm and contained even as it builds to its climax. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Is this just silly filmmaking, or have Ivory and Jhabvala succumbed to the Francophobia that gave us "freedom fries" in the congressional cafeteria? Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
A thin and unsatisfying concoction that somehow manages to make one of the richest and most durable sources of culture-clash comedy into an occasion for dullness. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Scattered and silly. If it evokes any strong feelings from you, it will probably be hunger -- the food all looks so good. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Team M-I knows its way around James and ignores the lazy stereotype of Americans as gauche rubes bumbling around Paris like barbarians at the ballet in favor of sly digs at French and American mores alike. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Feels like a period film in clumsy modern-day dressup. Read full review
50
Village VoiceDavid Ng
Entranced by the natives, Le Divorce reduces the knowing ditziness of Johnson's novel to vapid, exchange-student wonderment. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
Somehow lacks lightness and weight. This is a movie that tries to work a bloody suicide attempt and a murder into a comedy of manners, with almost everything registering in the same narrow spectrum of inconsequence. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Whatever the reason, his riff on Le Divorce follows the original only in broad strokes, hewing to a similar plot with many of the same characters but without the wit, the barbs and the politics. Read full review
50
VarietyDavid Rooney
This supposed comedy of manners about Americans in Paris feels artificial at every turn, its characters so devoid of backstory and nuance their behavior often makes little sense. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The French may be guilty of some bad behavior, but that's no reason to punish them with the shapeless, deceptively crass Le Divorce, a Merchant-Ivory production in which all things Gallic are reduced to quirks of snobbery, misogyny and haute selfishness. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
This is an insignificant film with a passably entertaining premise that goes wildly to hell the instant it strays from its comic ideals with brief, unsatisfying detours into the realms of art and high-end lingerie. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
I'm disappointed to report that Hudson and Watts have no chemistry as sisters, perhaps because Watts never seems like the expatriate artiste she's supposed to be playing. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
It may be that Merchant Ivory need the armature of the past in order to create a sense of the present. Le Divorce is mustier than any of their movies set back in time. Read full review
50
SalonCharles Taylor
Kate Hudson gives the best performance in the movie, though she seems always on the verge of being funnier and dirtier than she's allowed to be. Elsewhere the cast is accumulated for their cachet more than for any role they're given to play. Some of the casting makes no sense. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
There are flashes of wit and flair here, including two stylish sequences detailing the French obsession with food and scarves, but they are but brief respites from the film’s near-pathological drear. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
At its best (which isn't much), Le Divorce blusters along with the tolerable tedium of had-to-be-there home movies; at its worst (which is about 90 percent), it illustrates why the French went and invented the word merde. Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
The truth is that almost nobody, and certainly no nation, emerges well from this sour endeavor. [18 & 25 August 2003, p. 150]
30
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Should have been a smart bit of cinematic froth but instead sinks like an overworked souffle. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie bobbles along on a weird, soft-edged sarcasm. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A generally mirthless comedy of manners.
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