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Gemma Bovery

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France, United Kingdom · 2014
Rated R · 1h 39m
Director Anne Fontaine
Starring Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Fabrice Luchini, Elsa Zylberstein
Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance

Based on Flaubert's Madame Bovary, the film centers on Gemma Bovery, a British beauty who draws the attention of a baker after moving to the French countryside with her husband. It is a cheeky literary mash-up, a sensuous romance, a witty feminist commentary, and a celebration of French provincial life.

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What are critics saying?

80

Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl

Fontaine handles the assignations with sympathetic shorthand — we see what Martin sees, but we see more, too, enough to understand that Gemma's dalliances are vital to her but not overwhelming. She has a handle on them.

50

The New Yorker by Anthony Lane

The only performer who seems at ease is Luchini, eternally hangdog, who in one juicy moment spies Gemma and her beau-to-be, at a market stall, and confesses not to envy but to “a strange kind of jubilation” at seeing Flaubert’s narrative lock into place.

40

New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier

The emotions are florid and the entanglements heated. But the film become preoccupied with, as Flaubert would say, the pettiness and mediocrity of daily life. Arterton, though, is plushly magnetic. She draws us in despite the overly lyrical atmosphere.

75

New York Post by Kyle Smith

Laden with witty ironies, the film by Anne Fontaine suggests men may not play exactly the roles they think they do in women’s lives.

75

Observer by Rex Reed

The result is a somewhat reserved but sensual and gratifying movie that finds and polishes connections between literature and the screen while further catapulting the wonderful British actress Gemma Arterton several notches up the ladder toward international stardom.

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