It is Rhys Ifans playing the merchant of fancy goods that fuel Emma Bovary's relentless desires, who brings much needed energy and vitality to the movie.

| Aug 13, 2020

There is a lot to admire about Barthes' production values, but little to actually enjoy in the storytelling.

| Oct 16, 2017

Most crucially and delectably, it is language-Flaubert's mots précises-that sways with seductive power and portent, which Barthes taps for all its symbolic suggestion.

| Oct 10, 2017

It's a worthy effort, but the existential fiction of Barthes's debut, Cold Souls, in which the human essence could be bottled and sold, represented a better fit for her talents

| Aug 21, 2017

Incapable of going deeper in its story, the film is a very superficial take on the material. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 1, 2016

Mia Wasikowska isn't that bad, but her character lacks all the necessary layers to make us understand her erratic behaviour. [Full review in Spanish]

| May 25, 2016

A faithful adaptation of the mythical novel that stands out thanks to it's great production values. [Full review in Spanish]

| May 20, 2016

By not getting too fancy, Sophie Barthes scores one of the better adaptations with her slightly simplified but reasonably faithful Madame Bovary.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 20, 2016

Mia Wasikowska shows that there is no period character that can resist her. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 17, 2016

It is certainly beautiful... But the story, which follows a remorseless arc, is reduced to episodes that amount to a narrative shorthand and many characters - notably Giamatti's Homais - are hopelessly underwritten.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 5, 2016

The players struggle to inject emotion into the bookish, period-specific dialogue, which often results in clunky, stilted exchanges.

| Original Score: C+ | Feb 22, 2016

Wasikowska's muted performance doesn't make much of an impression here and neither do the two men playing her lovers.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 21, 2015

You suspect that had the Internet been invented in 19th Century France, this Emma would have been content with video games and Amazon.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 12, 2015

Gustave Flaubert's endlessly filmed novel Madame Bovary is hauled out yet again for another go here by director Sophie Barthes, and the result is a handsome, considerably simplified and oh-so-melodramatic costume epic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 20, 2015

Wonderland's Alice gives it her all, but Wasikowska is unable to suitably convince us why Bovary would jump so quickly into her extravagant spending and reckless affairs.

| Original Score: C+ | Sep 8, 2015

French-born writer-director Sophie Barthes has done a wonderful job fleshing out the novel's themes inside of two hours.

| Original Score: A- | Aug 2, 2015

This lo-fi vision is not a good match for the subtleties of the source material. It brings nothing new to the story, nor the storytelling, and earns the most wretched of labels -- watchable.

| Jul 17, 2015

Perhaps what this version demonstrates is that Flaubert's text can make for a perfectly cinematic effort, but continues to attract the unfilmable label when features miss the spark so crucial to its story.

| Jul 16, 2015

The latest adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's classic novel is a handsome if stilted re-telling of the tale about a woman who could not get enough of anything.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 10, 2015

It's a handsomely mounted but deliberately paced adaptation that keeps an emotional distance as it examines gender roles and high-society refinement in rather familiar fashion.

| Jul 10, 2015