I didn't hate The Seagull. I just forgot about it quickly after I left the theater. Like the love between two people in this world, the desire I had wasn't really genuine or strong enough to care about what happened next to these characters.

| Nov 6, 2020

It's fairly easy to suspend disbelief, since the characters are deeply realistic and uncomfortably relatable.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 18, 2020

Sadly, this version of the story is dull and spineless despite a few actors who are truly trying to bring something to life.

| Jun 11, 2020

If everyone played with [Elizabeth Moss'] brio and depth, if the characters weren't reduced to bare outlines, and if the film itself were less self-conscious about taking up people's time... Chekhov would be better served.

| Jun 2, 2020

One wishes that the film, which clocks in at a brisk 98 minutes, had slowed down and given the actors a bit more space. Even if the complicated brew of emotions cannot always match Chekhov's, there are still moments of great power here.

| Mar 23, 2020

Bening, who has developed into an acting bird of Streep-like plumage, enjoys herself enormously as Arkadina.

| Mar 16, 2020

Essentially a solid sunday night drama. Enjoyable yet rather disposable.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 28, 2020

Is another film version of The Seagull warranted? Beyond showcasing great female performers, probably not, but that might be enough.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 17, 2019

"The Seagull" does not take off and fly.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 18, 2019

Feels somehow staid and safe, robbed of its natural theatrically and trapped by the confines of its own frame.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 3, 2019

Such a waste of talent and effort.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 24, 2019

As emotionally heaving and handsomely staged as it all is - and, crucially, never beholden to stage conventions - the end result often feels like a box-ticking exercise in meeting the requisite marks.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 28, 2019

Bening is on great form as Irina, for whom all the world's a stage, its boards to be trod only in full make-up and costume. Moss is hugely entertaining as the black-clad, drinking, smoking Masha, haunting the estate like a bad-tempered, stomping spectre.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 12, 2018

This is the rare play adaptation that is able to cast off its stage shackles.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 11, 2018

The impressive cast manages to convey the subtleties and nuances of their roles, it's beautifully shot and there's a lively pace throughout.

| Oct 30, 2018

The English-speaking cast gives the film a contemporary feel while Mayer uses the camera fluidly to avoid the perception that you're watching a play. This is by far the best cinematic adaptation to date.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 28, 2018

Take away the boredom, melancholy and frustration, and you have a more fluent movie but a less faithful representation of the writer's world.

| Oct 27, 2018

If The Seagull sounds like it would make a much better play than a film then you would be correct.

| Original Score: C | Oct 25, 2018

The trifecta of brilliant women leads (Bening, Moss and Ronan), all doing a superb job, somehow doesn't quite alleviate the feeling that we are not going deep enough.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 23, 2018

It is a credit to Bening that while she, too, plays the excessively vain Irina "big", her screen-time provides the best moments in an otherwise middling affair.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 18, 2018