Madame Bovary 2015

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: The performances mostly come up short. Wasikowska does sullenness well, but her sexual yearning reads as more of the same. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Realistic and refined, but uneven and disappointing. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: This latest adaptation of a rarely well-filmed novel makes a strong effort to capture the stiflingly provincial world that Flaubert was able to describe in such precise, painstaking detail on the page. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Unafraid to make Emma decidedly unsympathetic, Wasikowska tries hard to convey the character's sense of feeling stifled by her era, but the movie still can't quite capture her shallow depth. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: "Madame Bovary's" attempt to give Flaubert's text the benefit of a 21st-century feminist perspective is admirable if unsuccessful. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: With her thousand-mile frown, Mia Wasikowska was born to play Victorian heroines, though she's a little too intelligent and self-aware for Flaubert's Emma Bovary. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The Normandy locations are evocative, but director Sophie Barthes compresses Emma's multiyear rise and fall into what seems like a month or so. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: After more than a century and a half, Emma Bovary is a classic ball of decidedly human confusion that just keeps on giving. Read more

Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: This umpteenth adaptation of Flaubert's classic novel at least chooses its Emma wisely ... Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Yet another adaptation of the classic novel that falls very short. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: In an ideal version of the novel, we would empathize deeply with her dilemma at the same time as we would cringe at the nature of the choices she makes. Sadly, this "Madame Bovary" makes that identification harder than it should be. Read more

Graham Fuller, New York Daily News: The tragedy accelerates impressively, but the well-acted film doesn't leave us wiser about the enigmatic, ever-doomed figure at the center of things. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It is not hard to believe that Ms. Wasikowska is Madame Bovary - she is at once serious and shallow, willful and indecisive, powerful and helpless - but this "Madame Bovary" is unfortunately not quite itself. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: There's little tension as her romantic and financial calamities collide, only mere traces of tragedy. Even at nearly two hours, much-needed character development is sorely lacking. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: This "Madame Bovary" may not quite be Flaubert's, but it's lovely to look at all the same. Read more

Robert Everett-Green, Globe and Mail: Barthes feels the need to improve on Flaubert, adding and dropping scenes and inventing social metaphors - mainly spiderwebs and corsets. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: For a film about passion, it feels oddly flat and often passionless. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: The trick with any adaptation of Flaubert's brilliantly humdrum tragedy: how to make ennui engaging. Director Sophie Barthes has little luck in this latest trek down Madame Bovary's road to Rouen. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: For all the talk of romance, this is a Madame Bovary that's grounded in the real - in the sounds and colors of Emma's world, in its material limitations and splendors. Read more