All Critics (28)
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Top Critics (7)
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Fresh (25)
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Rotten (2)
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DVD (4)
This incisive study of sex as an arena for manipulative power games takes too long to catch fire and suffers from a deficient central performance.
The creepy plot still holds a certain fascination.
Witty, entertaining, if occasionally overripe.
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Director Stephen Frears accelerates entertainingly through Christopher Hampton's wig-and-powder sado-comedy about sexual mind games in 18th-century France.
Tantalizingly wicked -- watching it makes the color rise to your cheeks.
An absorbing and seductive movie.
Emotional cruelty through sexual manipulation is the rule of the game of this smooth transfer of Christopher Hampton's witty play, with an all-American cast, headed by Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer.
A sombre, manipulative affair in which the dà (C)cor is never allowed to usurp our interest.
Splendid... full of deliciously devious characters
For a tragedy that carries a strong emotional kick, it's wickedly fun.
Close, Malkovich e Pfeiffer aproveitam ao máximo seus fascinantes personagens e os diálogos afiados do roteiro de Hampton, mas o filme é um pouco mais frio do que deveria.
Wicked and well-appointed, this is a deliriously sinful costume a drama.
Its vernacular style allows the film to connect easily with present-day morals, sexual politics, and thirst for power.
Stephen Frears' direction is superb -- the design and lighting evoke simultaneous worlds of privilege and squalor, and while the nature of day-to-day life in 18th century France becomes readily apparent, it never becomes distracting.
Perhaps the juciest adaptation of the story that one could hope for.
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