50
Elegant, stylish, and ultimately boring adaptation of the James novel.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
20
You get the plot, all right, but that's all you get - no body, no texture, no rhythm, no shading.
88
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
To say it right out, The Bostonians is the best movie I've seen all year.
80
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
The moral ambiguity of James's novel has been skillfully captured in the film, as has its remarkable modernity.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Jay Scott
The Bostonians, from the novel by Henry James, is the story of their relationship, one of the strangest in literature. Unfortunately, that strangeness has survived the transfer to the screen less than intact, and satiric oddity has been replaced by romantic banality. Redgrave's performance - red-eyed, quivering, opalescent - is peerless, the one incontrovertible reason to see the film. [23 Nov 1984]
80
Wall Street Journal by Julie Salamon
By the end there isn't anyone to cheer for, except the makers of this thoughtful and absorbing piece of work. [02 Aug 1984]
30
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay is less a response to its source than a careful college outline of it.
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Intelligent and subtle.