72
Metascore
37 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The New YorkerAnthony LaneThe New YorkerAnthony LaneLook closely at Johansson...an immaculate period performance. [15 December 2003, p. 119]
- 90The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThis is an art film in spades.
- 90VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyAn intelligent, visually ravishing adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThe actress (Scarlett Johansson) gives a nearly silent performance, yet the interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic.
- 80The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsWebber displays a great sense of understatement and a keen eye for careful framing, with cinematographer Eduardo Serra beautifully re-creating Vermeer's signature play of shadow and light.
- 80L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasWebber spins a slight but considerably enchanting tale of impossible romance and artistic discovery.
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliOne of those films that does many things right, and that places it among the year's best period pieces. It's a cut above the usual BBC costume drama.
- 70Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanWide-eyed, open-mouthed, and silently beseeching, she's (Johansson) even more a screen for projection here than in "Lost in Translation"; surrounded by a gaggle of over-actors, she glows with understatement.
- 60TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelThis material is either underdeveloped or crudely put by a director whose style is so conventional that he makes James Ivory look, by comparison, like Jean-Luc Godard.
- 60The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottAn auspicious feature-directing debut by Mr. Webber in so many ways -- a groaning board of temptations for the eye and ear -- that you may almost forgive the film its lack of drama and the perfunctory attempts at characterization. Viewing this film has been likened to watching paint dry; actually it is more like watching a painting dry.