The Golden Bowl
Lionsgate | Release Date: April 27, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The team's (Merchant-Ivory) best adaptation yet of a Henry James novel.
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Yet another Merchant Ivory triumph. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's splendid period filmmaking, grown-up and luxurious and gossipy without ever feeling fussy. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
If this handsome, faithful, intelligent screen adaptation of the novel doesn't leave you devastated, its ominous sense of a rarefied moral and aesthetic world bending before the accelerating streetcar of history will leave you with a mournful sense of loss. Read full review
80
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
A meticulously mounted film that retains the author's ambiguous characterizations yet is still emotionally accessible.
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
What Merchant, Ivory and Co. arrive at is a sort of handsomely illustrated Cliffs Notes version of the novel.
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
If The Golden Bowl -- isn't charged with electric emotion, well, that's not what Henry James or James Ivory is about.
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Too staid and stolid for audiences on the hunt for easy entertainment. Read full review
75
New York PostJonathan Foreman
But it is Thurman who stands out, with a marvelous, full-blooded performance, her best in some time, as tragic Charlotte.
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I admired this movie. It kept me at arm's length, but that is where I am supposed to be; the characters are after all at arm's length from each other, and the tragedy of the story is implied but never spoken aloud. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
Seen in the bowl's metaphoric reflection, Nolte's Adam, with his patronizing wish to build a great art museum to "give something back" to the poor laborers who built his fortune, is a complex American monster. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Another handsome, dramatically moribund adaptation of a grand old classic. Read full review
70
Film.comElizabeth Weitzman
Were the casting stronger, the film -- would have had a better chance of transcending its lack of subtlety. Read full review
70
New Times (L.A.)Jean Oppenheimer
Worth the price of admission if only to see the slinky Thurman decked out in a form-fitting, sequined pre-flapper era outfit. The word stunning hardly does her justice. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
There's no mirth, and precious little passion, left in this house. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
If it's not perfect, it still gives pleasure to the eye. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Certainly diverting and, in Thurman, it also has a knockout of a performance.
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Nolte, at least, delivers his lines with laser accuracy, and gives The Golden Bowl the life that so much cogitation could have drained from it. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
This early-1900s costume drama surely differs from Henry James's source novel. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
What makes Nolte so much stronger than the other performers is precisely this sense of mysteriousness and indirection, which doesn't really correspond to the Adam Verver of the novel but certainly jibes with James's overall method. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The restraint so magnificently applied in "The Remains of the Day" has simply fallen into disconnection. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Though it often wallows in louche baroque textures, The Golden Bowl is perhaps the most visually accomplished of the Ivory soaps. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Henry James' tangled, turgid prose always seems to me like a thicket of thorn trees -- so I should be grateful when somebody does the job for me on film. But I'm not - at least, in the case of The Golden Bowl. Read full review
50
VarietyEmanuel Levy
A deliberately paced literary film that takes too long to build narrative momentum and explore its central dramatic conflicts. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
What is grating is the filmmakers' perennial tendency to underestimate their audiences; their lack of faith leads them to drive home each nuance with a hammer. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
The movie establishes good will (or even great will) in the initial scenes because it's so gorgeous, but the rest is such a slog. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
Dances in circles until you tire of admiring it.
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Impeccably mounted, nicely scored and beautifully written. Read full review
40
Washington PostRita Kempley
Its splendor cannot be denied, but then again neither can the emptiness of this Henry James adaptation. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Takes a literary milestone of ambiguity and makes everything about it blisteringly obvious. Read full review
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