Metacritic Movie Ratings
The White Countess Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 83

  out of 100

  Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman

  I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that this oasis of romance amid the turmoil of Shanghai represents the way that Merchant and Ivory, for 40 years, saw themselves: as a sanctuary of calming, life-size taste in a movie culture grown coarse. It was often far from perfect, but I'll miss that sanctuary.

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• 75

  out of 100

  USA TodayClaudia Puig

  The film takes a long time to unfold, and some scenes feel inert. But ultimately, the conclusion is moving and satisfying.

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• 75

  out of 100

  Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert

  Fiennes and Richardson make this film work with the quiet strangeness of their performances; if they insist on their eccentricities, it's because they've paid them off and own them outright.

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• 70

  out of 100

  The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck

  The director has staged the elaborate production in his usual stately but impressive manner, and the production values boast the usual Merchant/Ivory stamp of quality.

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• 60

  out of 100

  The New York TimesStephen Holden

  With its tentative pace, fussy, pieced-together structure and stuffy emotional climate, The White Countess never develops any narrative stamina.

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• 60

  out of 100

  Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano

  The White Countess takes place in a fascinating time and place, rife with conflict and turmoil. But to watch Fiennes float (and Richardson trudge) through it all, absorbed in themselves and their own private misery, is to wish they'd started falling earlier, if only to knock some sense into them.

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• 50

  out of 100

  VarietyJustin Chang

  This final production from the team of James Ivory and the late Ismail Merchant is itself adrift in more ways than one, with a literate but meandering script by "The Remains of the Day" novelist Kazuo Ishiguro that withholds emotional payoffs to an almost perverse degree.

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