With churning performances and a terrific recreation of the period, the film is a startling story of a woman caught in an impossible situation. So it's a shame that it's rather muted.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 30, 2021

Despite the excellent cast, they cannot make this fascinating story interesting to watch.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 23, 2021

It feels like lockdown in 19th-century fancy dress.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 19, 2021

This is a beautifully rendered film with oodles of character.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 15, 2021

A beautifully crafted film filled with a haunting stillness and melancholy touched with moments of humor... Effie Gray speaks to the heart and pays soft homage to the woman whose life we see unfold.

| Dec 8, 2019

Dakota Fanning gives a star central performance which carries the film, and it is peopled with celebrated British actors of different generations

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 4, 2019

Due to Laxton and Thompson's dirge-like approach, their cinematic retelling of the true events does nothing but make you feel lousy and ready for a nap.

| Original Score: 5.5/10 | Mar 14, 2019

Dakota Fanning uses her expressive eyes to portray Effie's inner turmoil and misery and we immediately feel with her.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 14, 2018

This is the worst period drama of the year, and the whole cast know it.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 19, 2018

Thompson seems to have intended a feminist parable, but it's hard to believe she couldn't have come up with a better vehicle.

| Oct 17, 2017

The film should come alive, but it just lies there, handsomely shot but dramatically inert.

| Aug 21, 2017

Effie Gray begins like a fairy tale, before morphing into something richer, more complex, more feminist

| Aug 14, 2017

Everything about this potentially vibrant period drama is a washed-out watercolor.

| Aug 2, 2017

Effie Gray is powerful enough on its own merits.

| Jan 1, 2016

Thoughtful but inert.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 30, 2015

Appearances are everything in Effie Gray, a film that pushes tasteful restraint to extremes.

| Apr 25, 2015

Played with aetherial grace and innate wisdom by Dakota Fanning

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 18, 2015

Slow-moving period film makes intriguing tale uninteresting.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 10, 2015

It's deadly dull, clogged with all kinds of string and piano music and sunk by a perplexingly lifeless performance by Dakota Fanning as Gray.

| Apr 9, 2015

Fanning's controlled presence is ideal for a tale of Victorian repression. But as the film becomes one of quiet liberation, it needs more than her cool reserve.

| Apr 5, 2015