Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (Mrs. Parker and the Round Table) (1994)

74% of critics liked it
(31 reviews)
60% of users liked it
(1,908 ratings)

Jennifer Jason Leigh offers an acclaimed performance as humorist Dorothy Parker, who together with such 1920s luminaries as Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott and George S. Kaufman, was a charter member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table. The story is related in flashback form, as Mrs. Parker,… More Jennifer Jason Leigh offers an acclaimed performance as humorist Dorothy Parker, who together with such 1920s luminaries as Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott and George S. Kaufman, was a charter member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table. The story is related in flashback form, as Mrs. Parker, in Hollywood to cowrite the 1937 feature A Star is Born with her second husband Alan Campbell (Peter Gallagher), recalls her glory days as an Algonquinite. A great deal of attention is afforded Parker's vituperative bon mots, her alcoholism, her self-destructiveness, her suicide attempts, and her affairs with such literary contemporaries as Charles MacArthur (an uncharacteristically unsympathetic Matthew Broderick) and Robert E. Sherwood (Nick Cassavetes). The one person Parker truly seems to care about is humorist Robert Benchley (Campbell Scott), who prefers to keep their friendship platonic. Director Alan Rudolph attempts to convey the ambience of the 1920s by having dozens of that decade's luminaries appear in fleeting cameos, from Will Rogers (Keith Carradine) to Harpo Marx. Also featured in Mrs. Parker are Tom McGowan as the waspish Alexander Woollcott and Andrew McCarthy as Dorothy's near-invisible first husband, Eddie Parker. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr. 3 min.
Directed By: Alan Rudolph
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Nov 23, 1994 Wide
On DVD: Sep 5, 2006
Studio: Miramax

Critic Reviews

Todd McCarthy, Variety
A highly absorbing but naggingly patchy look at the acerbic writer Dorothy Parker and her cohorts at the legendary Algonquin Round Table.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
"Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" has its flaws, but it also has a heartfelt grasp of what set Dorothy Parker apart from her fellow revelers and makes her so emblematic a figure even today.
Hal Hinson, Washington Post
The Dorothy Parker that Leigh and Rudolph present isn't one-dimensional. In addition to being savagely funny, she is also capable of great elegance and genuine insight.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
What a wonderful, detailed portrait. And what an evocation of a time and a mood. "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'' is truly one of those films that inhabits its own world.
Derek Adams, Time Out
Absolutely superb.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Rudolph's effort to dramatize the life of the acerbic writer is dissatisfying due to shallow script that offers only a sketchy look, and Jennfer Jason Leigh's stiff rendition further hampered by arch accent; it's all black-and-white style and no drama.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Only Alan Rudolph could make these people dull.
Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com
A great ensemble helps to cut through a fairly stuffy narrative.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
Demonstrates how even highly gifted people can bring themselves down

Read all 9 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Leigh R

Good enough to watch a second go.
Bill C

A movie a bout a life that really needs to be told, sadly this movie focuses on the torrid affairs like some grocery store rag and when Leigh speaks you really need subtitles which are cruelly not missing. Leigh stretches her voice so far her voice is monotone with little intonation… More
A movie a bout a life that really needs to be told, sadly this movie focuses on the torrid affairs like some grocery store rag and when Leigh speaks you really need subtitles which are cruelly not missing. Leigh stretches her voice so far her voice is monotone with little intonation to elude to her inner state.
Anthony V

Jennifer Jason Leigh gives a great performance as one of my favorite writers.
cody f

Not a bad flix. You definatly get the feel for the time but I wanted more. I wanted to know more of the characters in the circle and what happened to them over time.

Cast

            Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dorothy Parker

            Matthew Broderick as Charles MacArthur

            Campbell Scott as Robert Benchley

            Peter Gallagher as Alan Campbell

            Jennifer Beals as Gertrude Benchley

            Andrew McCarthy as Eddie Parker

            Wallace Shawn as Horatio Byrd

            Martha Plimpton as Jane Grant

            Sam Robards as Harold Ross

            Lili Taylor as Edna Ferber

            James LeGros as Deems Taylor

            Gwyneth Paltrow as Paula Hunt

            Nick Cassavetes as Robert Sherwood

            David Thornton as George S. Kaufman

            Heather Graham as Mary Kennedy Taylor

            Tom McGowan as Alexander Woollcott

            Chip Zien as Franklin P. Adams

            Gary Basaraba as Heywood Broun

            Stephen Baldwin as Roger Spalding

            Matt Malloy as Marc Connelly

            Rebecca Miller as Neysa McMein

            Jake Johannsen as John Peter Toohey

            Amelia Campbell as Mary Brandon Sherwood

            David Gow as Donald Ogden Stewart

            Leni Parker as Beatrice Kaufman

            J.M. Henry as Harpo Marx

            Stanley Tucci as Fred Hunter

            Mina Badie as Joanie Gerard

            Randy Lowell as Alvan Barach

            Keith Carradine as Will Rogers

            Peter Benchley as Frank Crowninshield

            John Cusack
            
            Jon Favreau as Elmer Rice

            Leonard Parker
            
            Gabriel Gascon as Georges Attends

            Jane Adams (II) as Ruth Hale
See full cast