A terrific evocation of the author's world and its pitiable main character.
Comment
12/22/00
The House of Mirth (2000)
81
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:93
Fresh:75
Rotten:18
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: Despite being a period piece, The House of Mirth's depiction of social cruelty still feels chilling and relevant for today.
Runtime: 2 hrs 20 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Terence Davies (DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES) triumphs with his sumptuous, painterly adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel, which is set amid the vicious moneyed classes of 1905 New York and features... [More]
Starring: Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Dan Aykroyd, Eleanor Bron
Director: Terence Davies
Reviews for The House of Mirth
Such an audacious and unexpected triumph as Anderson's enhances everything around it.
12/22/00
It's a skillful brand of difficult, one that will keep you absorbed, and Anderson gives the kind of performance that will make you forget about The X-Files forever.
12/22/00
The most bloodless and least involving film about turn-of-the-century society since Merchant-Ivory's The Bostonians.
12/22/00
Anderson's Lily is the kind of heroine who earns our protectiveness by never begging for it; it's an astonishing performance.
12/22/00
Anderson's talent has many notes, and I liked the presence she brought to Lily Bart.
12/22/00
Top CriticIn a sense, [Anderson is] perfect for the role of a woman who, as Selden describes her, 'has it in her to be whatever she believed to be.'
12/22/00
The cruelty of class and the shame of an unforgiving society have seldom been as forcefully displayed.
12/22/00
Expresses the timeless impact of Lily Bart's plight.
12/22/00
Top CriticA grim tale well told.
12/22/00
It's no fetishized lost world, but one that is fiercely, uncomfortably present.
12/21/00
The miscast leads make this stately, BBC-ish adaptation ponderous instead of pointed.
12/21/00
A useless movie with hateful characters we care not a whit for.
12/21/00
As Wharton and Davies show in The House of Mirth, whispers can be most violent.
12/21/00
[Davies] puts his trust in Anderson, who rises to the occasion beautifully, lending her character a veritable synthesis of human strengths and frailties.
12/20/00
Davies' adaptation encompasses all the layers and below surface simmerings of Wharton's story.
12/19/00
[A] faithful translation of a subtle and complex novel into an intriguing film that fully engages both the mind and the heart.
12/18/00
Mesmerizing in its depiction of unthinking cruelty.
12/14/00
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