Vanity Fair
Focus Features | Release Date: September 1, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
22
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The peculiar quality of Vanity Fair, which sets it aside from the Austen adaptations such as "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice," is that it's not about very nice people. That makes them much more interesting. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Witherspoon's simply terrific, and it's amazing how quickly and easily she sheds speculation that she was too modern for the role. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A triumph for its director and its star. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Graced with Nair's loving direction, Witherspoon's radiance and that great cast, it is a treat, if somewhat less so than the novel. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Witherspoon is terrific. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Nair and screenwriters Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet and Julian Fellowes have faithfully carried most of the main characters over from the novel but have changed its point of view. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Yet something's missing in director Mira Nair's treatment -- specifically, a point of view about the material, a compelling reason for this historical excavation beyond the fact that Reese Witherspoon makes a convincing Becky Sharp. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Despite its flaws, the movie is compulsively watchable, and few will be bored by it. It's a charming movie that falls short of greatness, but is still worth a solid recommendation. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianKaren Karbo
Nair, against all odds, has injected new life into this oft-filmed tale, handily re-creating the grimy look of early 19th-century London streets. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The spirit of that most modern of 19th century heroines, Becky Sharp, remains intact, and Nair's Indian touches make for an intriguing, fresh approach. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
It almost makes you wonder whether Vanity Fair is not the perfect text for a lesson in Buddhist detachment. Certainly, Vanity Fair is a never-ending Western story that benefits from Nair's philosophically Eastern point of view. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
While the film bubbles with humor, sensual detail and heaps of plot, it never quite becomes more than the sum of its parts. It's well worth seeing, but it isn't transcendent. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Smart, saucy, and ingenious in the extreme. The trouble is that when a subtext is dragged to the fore, however splendidly, the poor old text gets lost. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
It borders on perky -- a duller, safer tonal choice for the story of a conniving go-getter whose fall is as precipitous as her rise. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The movie crams in so many of the events and characters of Thack­eray's 900-page novel that the story often seems to be moving on fast-forward, pausing here and there to introduce a character, then skipping ahead — from London to the country to Brussels and on, eventually, to India. Read full review
63
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Nair makes Vanity Fair an elegant showcase for an unforgettable heroine. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Nair's approach never entirely convinces, and the adaptation of the 900-plus-page book becomes increasingly episodic, making this Vanity Fair more a collection of intermittent pleasures than a satisfying emotional repast. Read full review
60
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Nair and Witherspoon pull back from the ferocity of Thackeray's portrait: they're afraid we won't find Becky Sharp likable enough. Yes, she's the most brilliant, bold and vibrant creature in this social panorama, but she should also be chilling. Read full review
60
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
It's by no means a classic, but the dialogue and high caliber of performances mean you’'ll get your money's worth, especially if you're really into empire waistlines and that infamous English haughtiness. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
The effect is a bit like watching "Gone With the Wind" with a dumpling substituting for Scarlett O’Hara. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Schickel
There's something about her (Nair) Vanity Fair that doesn't quite work. There is no depth beneath its bright surfaces, no potent emotional undercurrents. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Vanity Fair has a deeper conceptual confusion. In mixing satire and romance, the movie proves once again that the two are about as compatible as lemon juice and heavy cream. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
It comes as a huge disappointment, then, that having cast Witherspoon as Miss Sharp, director Mira Nair and Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) were unable to resist that impulse to find 21st-century prototypes in 19th-century literary characters, fictional creations whose values lie not in the way they reflect our own narcissistic times, but the way they reveal so much about their own. Read full review
50
Village VoiceLeslie Camhi
The pacing feels choppy, and the characters' emotions are sometimes too sudden to be believable. (One exception is Rhys Ifans, affecting as Amelia's long-suffering and neglected suitor.) Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Thackeray said that he wanted "to leave everybody dissatisfied and unhappy at the end of the story." Nair may have had other intentions, but by film's end, audiences are bound to be left dissatisfied with the choppy and confusing storytelling style and unhappy about the missed opportunity. Read full review
50
PremiereGlenn Kenny
I don’t quite cherish Thackeray’s novel, but a can-do feminist, multicultural contemporization of it strikes me as, well, unnecessary. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
This might be tolerable if Nair hadn't missed the central point, that Becky Sharp isn't sharp like spice, she's sharp like a razor. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
With more time and a dash more cynicism, the film just might have achieved the thrilling allure of Becky Sharp's perfectly icy heart. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
What's missing from this Vanity Fair is the sense of plucky, anything-goes adventurousness that abounds in Thackeray's novel. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Unfortunately, Nair's film doesn't so much end as fall off a cliff, the ultimate victim of viewers' heightened expectations that this briskly paced story will take them someplace -- other than around the block in a horse-drawn carriage. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
In an effort to blend Thackeray and "Sex and the City," Vanity Fair ends up nowhere. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
This movie has precious little satirical edge. What is needs is more emphasis on the "vanity" and less on the "fair." Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
Despite the curry flavoring Ms. Nair has seen fit to add, this is a Vanity Fair without spice.
40
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Either a radical reinterpretation of the source material or a mammoth failure of nerve. Whichever the case, it makes for a tremendously dull film that gives Witherspoon little to do except pose against a pretty backdrop. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyRon Stringer
Turgid, melodramatic travesty of Thackeray's gimlet-eyed satire. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The first half is better than average for an opulent Classics Illustrated film, thanks to realistic period detail, brisk storytelling, and Reese Witherspoon as the saucy rags-to-riches Becky Sharp. Then the whole lumbering weight of the production catches up with the filmmakers, slowing the proceedings to an interminable crawl. Read full review
40
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Witherspoon is flavorless, so she emphasizes the screenplay's skimpiness instead of at least partially redressing it. Read full review
40
EmpireEmma Cochrane
A serious misfire. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
She has been made lovable -- and a Vanity Fair with a lovable Becky Sharp has no reason to exist. It's as if Shakespeare had put Hamlet on Prozac: What's the point? Read full review
30
SlateDavid Edelstein
I wonder if anything could have made this misfire work. Read full review
10
SalonCharles Taylor
There may be filmmakers whose own vision is vast enough to take on Thackeray's, but Mira Nair isn't one of them. Her new film of Vanity Fair is a disaster. Scene by scene and moment to moment, it's a woeful misreading of the book. Read full review
More From This Movie

53 Critic Reviews

5.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL