60
Metascore
30 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonIt's a very classy, finely made film, and, as one watches it -- particularly those last sweeping scenes of political turbulence and escape -- one feels both pain at their (Merchant-Ivory) parting and grateful for what, together, they achieved.
- 75USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigThe film takes a long time to unfold, and some scenes feel inert. But ultimately, the conclusion is moving and satisfying.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertFiennes and Richardson make this film work with the quiet strangeness of their performances; if they insist on their eccentricities, it's because they've paid them off and own them outright.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe director has staged the elaborate production in his usual stately but impressive manner, and the production values boast the usual Merchant/Ivory stamp of quality.
- 70Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesCombines a delayed-gratification romance and rumblings of war.
- 63New York Daily NewsJack MathewsNew York Daily NewsJack MathewsIn any case, the movie moves only when she's (Richardson) in the center of it, and her complex performance as a woman balancing her dignity with her survival instincts is one of the year's very best.
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenWith its tentative pace, fussy, pieced-together structure and stuffy emotional climate, The White Countess never develops any narrative stamina.
- 60Los Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoLos Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoThe White Countess takes place in a fascinating time and place, rife with conflict and turmoil. But to watch Fiennes float (and Richardson trudge) through it all, absorbed in themselves and their own private misery, is to wish they'd started falling earlier, if only to knock some sense into them.
- 50VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangThis final production from the team of James Ivory and the late Ismail Merchant is itself adrift in more ways than one, with a literate but meandering script by "The Remains of the Day" novelist Kazuo Ishiguro that withholds emotional payoffs to an almost perverse degree.
- 40Village VoiceEd ParkVillage VoiceEd ParkAlas, The White Countess, the final Merchant Ivory film, is something of a lacquered dud.