Far from the Madding Crowd 2015

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Only with a final flourish in the last pages does the tragedy relent. This movie, though, doesn't leave time to savor the peculiarity of what's transpired. Hardy convinced with the warmth of his writing. Vinterberg lacks a cinematic equivalent. Read more

Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press: Vinterberg's classical, pastoral aesthetic recalls the heyday of the Merchant Ivory films, without the corny sentimentality of their lesser imitators. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Ultimately, this is a romance, so our heroine never strays too far from the appointed path - and its swoony end - but the director also gives her space to explore what it might be like to, well, just have your own piano. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: This filmed version of Hardy's fourth novel is well worth seeing. It rises head and shoulders above most of what we've been seeing lately. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: What does register at every turn is a vibrant sense of time and place that pulls us into Hardy's bygone world even when the drama falters. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: It struggles, like so many Thomas Hardy adaptations before it, to find a purpose for itself beyond "widescreen study guide." Picturesque and impersonal, it evacuates incident upon incident, as though Hardy's plotting were the runs. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Sure, it's a literary classic, but when you translate that to film, doesn't it usually mean stodgy, old-fashioned and, above all else, boring? Not in this case. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The movie, to its credit, holds on to the book's singular vision of a willful woman undoing several social strata of hapless men. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Nearly all of these developments wind up onscreen, but that only goes to show how the most faithful adaptation, by emphasizing some things and deemphasizing others, can spin the story in a different direction. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A good, solid version of this novel, guided by Mulligan, is still an achievement. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Because Mulligan's Bathsheba is such an encompassing portrait, I never felt as if I was watching a "type." Bathsheba, with all her warring impulses, is ferociously her own woman. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Mulligan is fetching and sure, as always, but the smoldering Schoenaerts is outright magnetic while consistently low key. Take note, Hollywood. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Even if you don't consider yourself an easy mark for literary bodice-rippers served with a side of sexual politics, this Madding Crowd gives you plenty of reason to swoon. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Thomas Vinterberg's sturdy new film adaptation brings out some of the darker shades, literally and figuratively, in Hardy's proto-feminist tale. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Nicely served on both sides of the camera, this is a concise and involving rendition of the story of a resilient young woman who comes into property in Victorian England's West Country and is courted by three suitors, all of whom have pluses and minuses. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: "Far from the Madding Crowd" has its appeal. Yet like unrequited love, one can't help but lament what might have been. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: "Far From the Madding Crowd" is one the most satisfying, finest romantic period dramas to grace screens, big or small, in awhile. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: A thoughtful literary adaptation that lives up to expectations, Far From the Madding Crowd breathes exciting new life into a classic story. Read more

Elaine Teng, The New Republic: In trying to create a feminist icon out of a decidedly Victorian character (just look at her name), the movie loses sight of the actual story it came to tell. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Sturdy adaptation of Hardy, with some fine work by Mulligan. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Though its social scope is narrower than Hardy's, you do come away from it with a true sense of the shrouded world that he devised, where fate could frown upon even the blithest day. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A chance to see another fine portrayal by Mulligan, and an opportunity to spend a few hours in a fevered fantasy world of prim and proper ladies and hot-headed shepherd boys. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: The madding now comes so close on the heels of the gladding and the sadding, that it isn't until the very end, that you realize you've been artfully shepherded - stampeded, really - right off an emotional cliff. Read more

Graham Fuller, New York Daily News: A thoroughly modern film anyone can relate to - it's like a "what a woman wants" discussion set in Victorian times. It's also an instant classic. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It's buoyant, pleasant and easygoing. That's a recommendation of sorts, and also an expression of disappointment. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Carey Mulligan is an inspired choice to play Bathsheba... She's cool and confident; we come to respect her strength and appreciate that she doesn't need a man to be complete. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: Just try to stop yourself from swooning. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Vinterberg may rush the final act, but he brings out the wild side in Mulligan, who can hold a close-up like nobody's business. She's a live wire in a movie that knows how to stir up a classic for the here and now. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A film that feels charged with life and hunger and romantic-erotic energy, with the ever-present danger of fire and storm and financial catastrophe that connected life in 19th-century rural England to the Middle Ages, and to mythology. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: You can smell the faintly salty air, hear the sheep's insistent bleating, sense the coolness of a spring dew, feel the sharpness of the wind as the seasons change. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A "Far From the Madding Crowd" in which romance is a matter of audience indifference or benign mystification is an adaptation not firing on all cylinders. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's beautifully old and atmospheric without feeling dated. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Mulligan uses her beguiling smile to defuse the dramatic underpinnings of the story, and Sheen adds another shading to his gallery of great performances. But it's Belgian actor Schoenaerts who will leave the target audience atwitter. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Feels like a missed opportunity to do a country romantic melodrama in grand style. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: There is much pleasure in watching these fine actors navigate rough emotional waters, each conveying as much in sidewise glances as they do in direct discourse. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Will no doubt captivate future generations of tenth-graders who couldn't be bothered to read the book, but it flattens the complex characters and grand scope of Hardy's novel into an airless and overly truncated CliffsNotes version. Read more

David Ehrlich, Time Out: Carey Mulligan's commanding performance is an easy beacon to follow: her Bathsheba is caught between the vulnerability of youth and the strength of knowing her own value. Read more

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: Far from the Madding Crowd is pretty to look at, even if it is a sort of SparkNotes version of Thomas Hardy's novel. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: An enthralling, complex, nimbly acted drama with a sweeping romance that doesn't shy away from sexual politics. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Tom Sturridge is too numbly featureless to channel the cruel but sexy Sergeant Troy; they don't call them wooden soldiers for nothing. Sadly, his performance is perhaps the perfect counterpart to Mulligan's. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Moviegoers often say, "Forget about the book, even if it's a 'classic.' How does the film work on its own terms?" But that's the point: On its own terms, it's bewildering. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: If there's one complaint about "Far From the Madding Crowd," it's that the chemistry between Mulligan and Schoenaerts doesn't totally spark. But then, how much pizzazz does one really expect from Victorian England? Read more