| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 6, 2005

Una cinta digna de verse, y visualmente deliciosa.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 20, 2005

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 12, 2004

Period costume dramas are always expected to offer opulent pageantry, but in the case of Vatel, that's all there is.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 8, 2002

It's too turgid with its own upholstered pomp.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2002

The richest and most intriguing portrait of period piece duty and subjugated happiness since The Remains of the Day.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 23, 2002

A costume drama with all costume and no drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 16, 2002

It lacks an understanding of the harmonies and contrasts in the very society he is trying to expose to ridicule.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 1, 2001

Decadence befitting a dozen kings

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 12, 2001

May be opulent, but it's not deep.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 5, 2001

Joffe's extravaganza is a hollow, if pretty, shell.

| Feb 23, 2001

This putrid dish marks a new low for director Roland Joffe.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | Feb 16, 2001

For all the opulence, there's a distinct overall glumness in tone.

| Feb 7, 2001

A completely unnecessary movie.

Full Review | Jan 11, 2001

It's just deadly, deadly dull.

| Jan 10, 2001

A costume drama with far more costumes than drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 25, 2000

A landmark in world cinema not merely for sheer grandeur but also attention to dense authenticity.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 25, 2000

It'll likely earn Oscar consideration for its visual aspects, but no one will probably remember anything else about it.

Full Review | Dec 25, 2000

The dialogue (polished by Tom Stoppard, no less) strains for a wit it never achieves.

Full Review | Dec 24, 2000