Dallas Observer by Gregory Weinkauf

Fry establishes himself as an inspired, world-class talent behind the camera and delivers my favorite film of the year thus far.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

The movie has a sweetness and tenderness for these characters, poor lambs, blissfully unaware that they're about to be flattened by World War II.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington

A brilliant, giddy satiric romp with a discreetly moralistic viewpoint beneath its high-style wit.

New York Daily News by Jami Bernard

This is a wickedly funny skewering of a prewar London society gone mad with frivolity.

Slate by David Edelstein

I could quibble with the conventionally romantic ending and a couple of small but not-so-cosmetic alterations, but on the whole, this is just how I'd always imagined one of my favorite comic novels should look and sound.

The New York Times by Dana Stevens

Waugh's dialogue, effortlessly catching the lockjaw intonations and facetious mannerisms of the British aristocracy between the world wars, is a gift to screenwriters and performers alike. The actors Mr. Fry has assembled receive the gift with gusto and grace.

Los Angeles Times by Carina Chocano

As faithful to the spirit of the novel, and the era that inspired it, as a movie could be yet still feel as fresh as Paris Hilton dish on Page Six.

Salon by Stephanie Zacharek

in its best moments, Bright Young Things is as lithe and as wicked as its source material. Depending on how much of a Waugh purist you are, its flaws may trouble you as you're watching it. But afterward, they might not matter so much.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

Both script and direction are the work of the glittering comedic polymath Stephen Fry.

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

An enjoyable movie that marks a rattling good directorial debut for Stephen Fry, the English actor who's best known for starring in "Wilde" seven years ago.

Film Threat

Fun, giddy, and intoxicating as the endless soirees in which it revels.

New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer

Fry's saving grace is his love of actors. The younger and less familiar performers are more than adequate, but it's the older guard that shines. Broadbent is marvelously rummy.

Variety by Derek Elley

An easy-to-digest slice of literate entertainment for upscale and older audiences that lacks a significant emotional undertow to make it a truly involving -- rather than simply voyeuristic -- experience.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

By the time Fry lets darkness encroach on these bright young things, the fizz is gone, and so is any reason to make us give a damn.

The Hollywood Reporter

Noisy and giddy, the film makes a stab at "Moulin Rouge" territory but ends up as a very trite story of boy loses girl, boy finds girl. It is also stridently camp -- not so much roaring '20s as screaming.

Village Voice by Ed Park

Aside from cameos by Jim Broadbent (as the drunken major) and Peter O'Toole (as Nina's reclusive, eccentric father), much of the acting strains for a sophistication that quickly becomes annoying.

Chicago Reader

Under his (Fry’s) direction this 2003 British feature becomes a flat, depressing affair.