The Bookshop
CDI Films | Release Date: August 24, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinAug 23, 2018
Although it’s anchored by a deeply felt performance by the wonderful Emily Mortimer, with a marvelous supporting turn by the always-welcome Bill Nighy, the film, scripted and directed by Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet (“Elegy,” “Learning to Drive”), is at times a bit too mustily mounted and told to keep us as fully immersed as we might like. Read full review
60
Film ThreatFilipe FreitasAug 23, 2018
The adaptation of Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1978 novel The Bookshop by Spanish director Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, Elegy, Learning To Drive) is not devoid of plot disturbances but provides fair moments of gorgeous filmmaking and acceptable entertainment. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 21, 2018
It is a strange, subdued, rather miserable film, interestingly perceptive on conformism and philistinism as a way of life, and on the disconcerting wiles the inhabitants use in order to thwart Florence’s entirely reasonable plans. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 31, 2018
The Bookshop isn’t an especially good film, but there’s no shortage of good in it. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comNell MinowAug 24, 2018
We come to it with high expectations and it is especially disappointing that this movie never comes together. Read full review
50
Screen DailyDemetrios MatheouAug 21, 2018
In theory there’s plenty here to engage: a critique of Little England philistinism, the arrival of provocative literature into a sleepy backwater that barely reads, the revolt of a courageous woman against the establishment. Yet none of that comes to life. Read full review
50
VarietyGuy LodgeAug 21, 2018
This is a frustratingly patchy adaptation, in which some of Fitzgerald’s shrewdest observations on the savage politics and politesse of supposedly tranquil English village life get a little bit lost in the Europudding. A fine, sensitive leading turn from Emily Mortimer helps shore up these quiet, lightly dust-covered proceedings, but can’t quite put The Bookshop in the black. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAug 29, 2018
Green's relationship with reclusive bibliophile Edmund Brundish (Nighy) is the most effective component, even if it does owe such a glaring debt to the superior "84 Charing Cross Road" (sorry, "You've Got Mail," but still the ne plus ultra of bookstore movies). Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 21, 2018
Nighy and Mortimer have just a couple of scenes together, but they’re easily the film’s best: both actors sink gratifyingly into the nuances of this incipient friendship, bond over books you actually believe they’ve read, and give the film its best hope of doing Fitzgerald justice. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeAug 21, 2018
For all the real-estate machinations and nefarious scheming, there are too many inert scenes that drain the energy from this already plodding story. Read full review
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