64
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldSeattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam ArnoldI can't think of another movie that more fluently communicates the special agony and ecstasy of the game of chess.
- 75Boston GlobeJay CarrBoston GlobeJay CarrWatson's character grows in importance until she eclipses the recessive Luzhin.
- 75Chicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonChicago TribuneMichael WilmingtonYou'll find heartbreakingly star-crossed lovers, a heartless villain (Wilson) and a dazzling backdrop of aristocratic life before and after the Russian Revolution.
- 70Film.comPeter BrunetteFilm.comPeter BrunetteGorris has beefed up the role of Natalia (Watson), with the end result that the film's emphasis is appropriately divided between the two characters in an emotionally satisfying way.
- 63Baltimore SunMichael SragowBaltimore SunMichael SragowHandsome and well-acted, yet it can't hold a pawn to Nabokov's harrowing and moving character study.
- 63Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe film is elegiac and sad, beautifully mounted, but not as compelling as it should be.
- 60Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAn attractive, intelligent film that's intractably at odds with itself.
- 60New Times (L.A.)Bill GalloNew Times (L.A.)Bill GalloIn the end, it demonstrates all over again the virtual impossibility of doing Nabokov justice on film, because his work is so resolutely and brilliantly made of words.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleBob GrahamSan Francisco ChronicleBob GrahamWhen the film sticks with the eccentric comedy of a highborn woman attracted to a preoccupied genius, it works splendidly. When it strays into melodrama, it is as ill-equipped as Luzhin.
- 40Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenIt's one of those period dramas about upper-crust Europeans in vacation resorts, which at first we think we've seen a million times before.