Mary Queen of Scots
Focus Features | Release Date: December 7, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
19
Negative:
2
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 16, 2019
Ronan is just so good in this movie – so intelligent, so passionate, but she upstages Robbie, and Robbie’s parts of the film, often lumbered with leaden historical exposition dialogue, especially from Pearce, don’t have the same snap. Read full review
60
SlateInkoo KangDec 6, 2018
The depiction isn’t remotely believable, but with Ronan endowing her character with both a steel spine and a fresh-faced naïveté (in a performance that makes her the film’s sole great asset), it’s fun, even inspiring. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 6, 2018
It looks beautiful and moves swiftly but never quite takes full imaginative flight. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 6, 2018
Bright and charismatic though Mary was, she was, in effect, born under a bad sign, fated, despite all her advantages, not to have anything like the happily ever after that royals have in fairy tales and Disney movies. In a similar way, despite numerous advantages (including splendid cinematography by John Mathieson), the film with her name on it has promise it does not fully deliver on. But when those queens are on the screen, all bets are off. Read full review
60
Total FilmKate StablesNov 26, 2018
Ronan is the monarch of the lens in this feisty, feminist royal biopic, which favours queenly clashes over battlefield action. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 21, 2018
Visually dull and intriguing in only the most generic sense, but still a showcase for the twin talents of Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeNov 15, 2018
Like an entire season of peak television crammed into the space of two hours, Mary Queen of Scots spares us not only the butchery but also a great deal of the drama that might explain how the misfortunate monarch came to find her neck on the line. Read full review
58
UproxxVince ManciniDec 13, 2018
Mary Queen of Scot’s characterizations are confused, its themes murky. Such that when we leave the theater our dominant impression is “boy, that sure was a story, huh?” Which is to say, a tale in which a lot of wild things happened but we’re not entirely sure what they meant. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 7, 2018
In real life, Mary and Elizabeth never met, but this film, directed by Josie Rourke and written by Beau Willimon, stages numerous interactions, many of them accompanied by flaring nostrils. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerDec 4, 2018
By focusing on Mary (the subject of its source material), the film feels lopsided, especially without any other interesting characters apart from Elizabeth. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyFeb 13, 2019
Lavishly detailed yet dramatically vague, opulently produced but blandly depicted. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 13, 2018
Despite the sometimes clever and surely deliberately anachronistic dialogue from the terrific screenwriter Beau Willimon (“The Ides of March,” the Netflix series “House of Cards”), capable direction from Josie Rourke and strong performances from Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart and Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots often comes across as stultified and stagnant. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorDec 13, 2018
Perhaps you can accuse all historical fiction of presentism, the sin of applying contemporary values to historical events. Why does the past interest us if not for the comparisons it provides with the present? But with the example of "The Favourite’s" wittily anachronistic romp through the 18th-century court of Queen Anne so fresh at hand, it is hard not to judge the earnest Mary Queen of Scots for its ignorance of the problem. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 6, 2018
What’s mysterious about this film is why, with so much on its mind and such gifted stars to express it, the drama should be so unaffecting — even when the two women finally meet, as they neglected to do in the less shapely drama of real life. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaDec 6, 2018
It’s neither a rigorous history lesson nor a particularly interesting work of drama and character, and it ends up doing the exact same things — pitting women against each other, fixating on fertility and virginity — it claims to find so oppressive for its heroine. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 6, 2018
The movie is less a movie than a collection of scenes lined up in a row, and the tone wobbles between pomp and circumstantial melodrama. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDerek SmithDec 5, 2018
As effective as director Josie Rourke is at exposing the emotional and physical toll of reigning as queen when exploring Mary and Elizabeth's relationship, her portrait of an endless string of betrayals ends up as simply faceless and impersonal. Read full review
40
CineVueNick HiltonJan 18, 2019
In the end, it’s more disappointing than bad. A great cast and an interesting period of history (even if it has been done to death on screens and in classrooms) wasted on a sombre muddle that wants to have both the gravity of Shakespeare and a fresh, dynamic perspective. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerDec 12, 2018
Mary Queen of Scots catches the outline but misses all the details. Read full review
More From This Movie

60 Critic Reviews

5.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 63 Normal
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL