The Bostonians

The filmmaking team of director James Ivory, screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and producer Ismail Merchant, remained loyal to James, assembled a brilliant cast and created one of the best films of the year. [10 Aug 1984]

To say it right out, The Bostonians is the best movie I've seen all year. Read full review

This is a classy adaptation of a Henry James novel. Read full review

The moral ambiguity of James's novel has been skillfully captured in the film, as has its remarkable modernity. Read full review

By the end there isn't anyone to cheer for, except the makers of this thoughtful and absorbing piece of work. [02 Aug 1984]

Intelligent and subtle. Read full review

Elegant, stylish, and ultimately boring adaptation of the James novel. Read full review

The Bostonians, from the novel by Henry James, is the story of their relationship, one of the strangest in literature. Unfortunately, that strangeness has survived the transfer to the screen less than intact, and satiric oddity has been replaced by romantic banality. Redgrave's performance - red-eyed, quivering, opalescent - is peerless, the one incontrovertible reason to see the film. [23 Nov 1984]

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay is less a response to its source than a careful college outline of it. Read full review

You get the plot, all right, but that's all you get - no body, no texture, no rhythm, no shading. Read full review