The Portrait Of A Lady Critic Reviews

I think if you care for James, you must see it. It is not an adaptation but an interpretation.Read the full review

A fascinating portrait not only of a lady, but of the society and marriage that entrap, then attempt to destroy, her.Read the full review

Brilliantly eccentric even when it yields mixed results.Read the full review

The Portrait of a Lady may not be up to this high standard, but it is never less than absorbing either.Read the full review

A literary adaptation of exceeding intelligence, beauty and concentrated artistry, but one that remains emotionally remote and perhaps unavoidably problematic dramatically.Read the full review

With this bold stamp [director Jane Campion] lays claim to the story that follows as wholly her own.Read the full review

In aiming for a new kind of lit-drama cool, Jane Campion freezes the warmth right out of Henry James' expansive heart.Read the full review

Intelligent but exasperating, its monotonous tone will wear down even viewers who started out in its corner. [27 Dec 1996]Read the full review

Ms. Campion has shown a gift for pictorialism -- static pictorialism; she's not a fluid filmmaker - and an abiding fascination with sexual repression. She brings both to this long, slow, distanced version of the Henry James novel. [27 Dec 1996]Read the full review