Vanya on 42nd Street Reviews

... a record of a creative collaboration that has a life of its own, at once documentary, filmed rehearsal, play within a play, and private production restaged for a camera...

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Reuniting with Andrew Gregory, Louis Malle, in what became his swan song, has made a modern, captivation version of the Chekhov play.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

It's amazing it has taken Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory, and director Louis Malle more than 10 years to collaborate again. It was worth the wait, though.

Full Review | Original Score: A

The drawback, however, is that the actors chew the scenery in true stagecraft fashion, which, on film, induces regular wincing and a wish that they would hand out the valium and take it easy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Not entirely successful, but undeniably brave.

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There are moments of considerable power here but this stripped-down rendering gives us something closer to a latterday dysfunctional family than Chekhov's doomed bourgeoisie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The performances are precise, the language is alive and well spoken and the setting is striking, but Vanya on 42nd Street still suffers rather heavily from the limitations of filmed theater.

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Malle adeptly eases us into the play so we can't tell at what precise moment Chekhov takes over, an ambiguity that becomes the film's triumph as well as its key limitation.

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It offers a unique viewing at a work in progress.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

There's more power here than in all the multi-million dollar fireworks of Hollywood.

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A movie by, about and for actors.

| Original Score: 4/5

Despite great acting, the general impression of the film is underwhelming.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10

The elegant understatement of this production turns it into a livelier experiment, a fluent, gripping version of one of Chekhov's more elusive plays.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

It's more than a worthy capper to Malle's brilliant career.

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A lively and intriguing adaptation of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya."

| Original Score: 4/5

Much too talky.

| Original Score: 2/5

This live-wire Vanya, freshly observed for the '90s, is fiercely funny, touching and vital.

A film which reduces Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" to its bare elements: loneliness, wasted lives, romantic hope and despair. To add elaborate sets, costumes and locations to this material would only dilute it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

In terms of dramatic action, almost nothing happens, and yet Malle's fluid, invisible style carries us deep into the hearts and minds of these characters.

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The overall effect of Uncle Vanya on 42nd Street is that one has just experienced something truly timeless.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5