The two Dames at the heart of the movie could hold viewers' attention making tea, and it's their performances that elevate what is otherwise a consistent, but not particularly memorable production.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 2, 2021

Gives two of the cinema's greatest grande dames a chance to show off their enormous talents.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 5, 2019

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Smith is rather wasted...Perhaps if the actresses had exchanged roles, this pallid palette would have had more emotional color.

| Mar 1, 2007

One wonders how much of their performances came from Dance's direction and how much came from the actresses themselves, but what counts is what is there on the screen, which is more than satisfactory.

| May 2, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Filled with wonderful music and magnificent, subtle acting. The story, however, goes nowhere at a glacial pace.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 19, 2005

Maggie Smith and Judi Dench are a great duo, but the film isn't so great.

Full Review | Aug 12, 2005

Remaining locked in Ursula and Janet's fantasies, Ladies in Lavender evades complexity with monomania.

Full Review | Aug 9, 2005

Dance is so tentative and tasteful in his direction that he never draws out the underlying emotions beneath the polite exteriors.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 28, 2005

There's something irresistibly admirable about Dance's decision to make a film based on a short story by a long-out-of-favor writer like William J. Locke.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 20, 2005

...such a civilized and handsome film that we might be willing to forgive its lack of drama

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 15, 2005

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 5, 2005

A well-executed Masterpiece Theater leisurely-paced type of drama.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 2, 2005

There is nothing like a Dame. Ladies in Lavender boasts two: Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. And they're enough to make this cinematic tea cozy eminently watchable.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 1, 2005

Dench and Smith are the sort of performers that students of fine acting are pleased to watch in anything, even if it's sweet-but-unsatisfying, unremarkable stuff like this.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 30, 2005

Dance sets up a charming premise and then slowly lets the air out of it over the course of 100 minutes, limping to a predictable and pat conclusion.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 30, 2005

Watching seasoned British actresses Judi Dench and Maggie Smith work together ... is visual and verbal poetry in motion.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 27, 2005

It's sweet, but ultimately, unfulfilling and hollow.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 24, 2005