This is a first-rate piece of work by a director who’s daring and agile. The unfussiness of Frears’ approach is tonic. The movie gets at the important things and doesn’t linger over them. It’s heaven -- alive in a way that movies of classics rarely are.

| Sep 12, 2023

A decadent celebration of wanton cruelty.

| Dec 7, 2022

This incisive study of sex as an arena for manipulative power games takes too long to catch fire and suffers from a deficient central performance.

| Feb 8, 2008

The creepy plot still holds a certain fascination.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 8, 2008

A sombre, manipulative affair in which the decor is never allowed to usurp our interest.

| Jan 26, 2006

Witty, entertaining, if occasionally overripe.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 20, 2003

An absorbing and seductive movie.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Director Stephen Frears accelerates entertainingly through Christopher Hampton's wig-and-powder sado-comedy about sexual mind games in 18th-century France.

| Jan 1, 2000

Tantalizingly wicked -- watching it makes the color rise to your cheeks.

| Jan 1, 2000