Memoirs of a Geisha
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: December 9, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The story is so compelling and the movie is such a pleasure to the eyes and ears. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Here is a film about Japan made by Americans, shot mostly in the U.S. and, of course, in English. Once you accept these compromises in the name of international filmmaking, none is a real deterrent to enjoying this lush period film. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
From a filmmaking point of view, this is a work that the old Hollywood moguls themselves would have been proud to present. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Any doubts about three Chinese actresses speaking English with Japanese accents vanish in the face of their deeply felt performances and the world Marshall conjures with magical finesse. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
There's no doubting that Memoirs of a Geisha is a lush motion picture, and it has much to recommend it, but this will not go down as one of the great screen romances of the 2000s. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The movie may be set in prewar Japan, but it's pure 1940s Hollywood. There's costume, pageantry, melodrama, the feeling of a sweeping epic without the bother of too much accuracy, equal doses of heartbreak and uplift. Read full review
75
PremierePeter Debruge
Marshall's Memoirs achieves something few other high-profile literary adaptations do: Rather than simply inspiring us to hunt down the source material, it actually stands alone as a film, rich in drama and star-crossed romance. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Don't be misled by the chopsticks and cherry blossoms: Memoirs of a Geisha, for all its exotic casting and locale, is our friend "Cinderella" in a kimono. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
It's not a great movie, or even a particularly good one, but it's spectacular. No expense has been spared. The technical crew reads like a roll call of Oscar-night regulars. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Spanning two decades and a momentous war, Memoirs of a Geisha displays all the pomp and grandeur of an epic, but you wouldn't call it sweeping. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Indeed, the film is altogether too much like Sayuri: trying to overwhelm with surface beauty and unspoken emotion, it never hits deeper than the skin. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Memoirs of a Geisha is like a sumptuous piece of silk: stunning yet ultimately flimsy. You wish it were more like a kimono, richly woven, multilayered and more substantial. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Simultaneously gorgeous and forgettable, sentimental and prurient. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Full of falling rain, fluttering silk, John Williams's music and whispery voiceover, Memoirs of a Geisha is one long oxymoronic exercise in attempting to show delicacy through overkill. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I object to the movie not on sociological grounds but because I suspect a real geisha house floated on currents deeper and more subtle than the broad melodrama on display here. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The film version of Memoirs of a Geisha is very like a geisha itself: a thing of exquisitely refined surfaces beneath which beats an ordinary heart. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The film comes to life whenever the cartoonishly vindictive Gong throws a tantrum, but she played virtually the same role in Zhang Yimou's "Shanghai Triad," which presented a far more compelling rationale for her star fits. Without her, this expensive piece of backlot pageantry turns vivid history into an ossified tchotchke. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Memoirs of a Geisha is everything you'd expect it to be: beautiful, mesmerizing, tasteful, Japanese. It's just not very hot. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
The international Asian stars gamely tackle their English-language roles, aided by superior costumes, makeup, and set design. But despite all the hothouse intrigue, the film lacks passion. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie Errigo
A beautiful, exotic and well-acted cultural hybrid, but it’s never as moving as it ought to be. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Not since "Snow Falling on Cedars" have I seen so pedigreed a lit-pic sit there like such an inert teapot, available only to be admired for its mysterious, ineffable Asian teapotness. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Beautiful geishas flit and whoosh through the equally beautiful scenery. Their kimonos are artworks-in-motion. So why is the film so boring? It could be because director Rob Marshall is so transfixed by all the ritualistic hoo-ha that he never brings the story down to earth. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Memoirs of a Geisha was never primed to be a film that burns down the house. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Mr. Marshall can't rescue the film from its embarrassing screenplay or its awkward Chinese-Japanese-Hollywood culture klatch, but Memoirs of a Geisha is one of those bad Hollywood films that by virtue of their production values nonetheless afford a few dividends, in this case, fabulous clothes and three eminently watchable female leads. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Oh, what awful voices -- clumsy words as well as cheesy accents -- come out of the actors' mouths! Though I wanted to appreciate the human story, and the lavish spectacle, I couldn't get past the clangorous echoes of Charlie Chan.
50
New York PostKyle Smith
It's based on a novel, but you'd guess it came from a coffee-table book. Marvelous design, photography and costuming mark this period piece. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Too labored and cliched to incite passion in an audience. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
There's no life, no juice, in the picture. Instead of tempting you into submission, it merely drugs you. It's surprising that a filmmaker who gave us such a lively debut, "Chicago," could slap us with a picture as dull and worthy as this one. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Somehow the movie that Rob Marshall has made from Golden's novel is a snooze. How did he and the screenwriter, Robin Swicord, let their subject get away from them? Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Director Rob Marshall, as he did in "Chicago," plays the movie as though it's all an embellished memory inside the head of geisha Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang), but why would she remember everyone speaking in choppy English? Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Colleen Atwood's costumes are the best a film adaptation of a popular book can buy. They rustle like nobody's business. The film itself is equal parts silk and polyester. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A lush, lovely snooze-fest. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Well, we're not in "Chicago" anymore, or even its soundstage approximation, but that hasn't stopped Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall from fashioning another epic spectacle out of two squabbling women in (a sort-of) show business. Read full review
40
SlateDavid Edelstein
It skips lightly over the surface of its rich material, more preoccupied with making pretty pictures than dipping below the surface so that you can experience the world through the eyes of its traumatized, yet increasingly savvy, heroine. Read full review
40
NewsweekStaff (Not credited)
Trying too hard to grab our attention, he (Marshall) loses it. The art of the geisha prizes subtlety, stillness, grace. Why doesn't this movie? Read full review
30
Village VoiceDennis Lim
Swaddled in the posh vulgarity that passes for awards-season elegance, Memoirs is deluxe orientalist kitsch, a would-be cross between "Showgirls" and "Raise the Red Lantern," too dumb to cause offense though falling short of the oblivious abandon that could have vaulted it into high camp. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It is a grand-looking, grandly empty pageant. Read full review
20
Film ThreatPhil Hall
To its credit, the film's costume design is stunning. But unless you have a kimono fetish, there's no reason to pay a good dollar (or a yen, for that matter) on this junk. Read full review
More From This Movie

54 Critic Reviews

6.7 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 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL