Vanity Fair (2004)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Directors C

  
  [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img] It's period set pieces are designed pretty well, the costume design is imaginative, and technically, Vanity Fair is kind of excellent. However, i'm not sure if i'm the only one who saw this but… More
  [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img] It's period set pieces are designed pretty well, the costume design is imaginative, and technically, Vanity Fair is kind of excellent. However, i'm not sure if i'm the only one who saw this but Reese Witherspoon's performance is a bit of a mixed bag, sometimes she acts convincingly, but in the more dramatic moments she tends to crack slightly. Also her character, Becca Sharp, like many have said is supposedly dislikable, even if the film managed to make her that way she still wouldn't be that interesting. Mainly due to it's incoherent uncertain style of storytelling. In addition the ending is highly unclimatic and as a whole, the film is just too long. It's not terrible because there are some good supporting performances, such as Tony Maudsley's, but it's often quite dull and lifeless and suffers from various sub plots and a bloated amount of unnecessary characters.

• Jennifer X

  
  Yuck, just yuck. Long, dull, boring, ridiculous. So much does not make sense about this movie it's ludicrous why Mira Nair would decide to set part of in India. I know part of this is Thackeray's problem and not Nair's, but...seriously?

• Candy R

  
  Period drama about a governess called Becky Sharp who is a ruthless social climber who will do anything to stay in London society. Good cast. Reese Wetherspoon is delightful.

• Jennifer D

  
  I honestly lost complete interest about half way in. Please know this NEVER happens. I loved the costumes and I like Reese Witherspoon, but it was just so stuffy and dull. Ugh.

• Wahida K

  
  All's fair in love & war.

• Morgan S

  
  This is a beautifully made movie! although it was a bit like a jane austen novel was attcked by a bollywood productions, i still love the colors and the costume! I was ver surprised by Reese Witherspoon, she carried this role very well and i think was just the one to play it.… More
  This is a beautifully made movie! although it was a bit like a jane austen novel was attcked by a bollywood productions, i still love the colors and the costume! I was ver surprised by Reese Witherspoon, she carried this role very well and i think was just the one to play it. Although her motives were not always the best she still kept her character likeable! I was not satified with the ending tho! I would have like to see Becky get what was coming to her. There needed to be a coast involed, yes she lost her husband and son buy she didnt seem all that put out by it. i would to have liked to mybe see her go all the way back down be bing a maid.

• vieras e

  
  I watched this solely for the deliciousness that is James Purefoy in Regency attire.

• Sophie B

  
  Great acting/costumes/casthowever I felt he story waquite confusing and not followable. Overall good.

• Kylie B

  
  Not entirely accurate to the novel, and gallops through the plot - but then, the novel is large and the film can only be so long. I can see Mira Nair's influence, the colours are so rich and vivid, just like in Monsoon Wedding. She makes more of the Indian connection when it was… More
  Not entirely accurate to the novel, and gallops through the plot - but then, the novel is large and the film can only be so long. I can see Mira Nair's influence, the colours are so rich and vivid, just like in Monsoon Wedding. She makes more of the Indian connection when it was barely anything in the novel, but that simply adds a fresh side to the established plot. The cast were't exactly like I would've imagined, but they do really well. I'm not sure that I like what they've done to Dobbin though (he was certainly not as handsome as here). The satircal humour of the novel remains embedded, though part of the enjoyment of the novel was (for me anyway) Becky's lack of emotion, and they've made her a tiny bit too soft, I feel. All in all, a lot better than I'd been expecting.

• Rico Z

  
  This movie was nearly perfect. Reese Witherspoon should have been nominated for an Oscar for this performance. It was also one of those movies that came and went thanks to the brilliant marketing people at the production company.

• Walter M

  
  [font=Century Gothic]In "Vanity Fair", daughter of a French opera singer and an English painter, Becky Sharp(Reese Witherspoon), is subsequently orphaned and given over to be educated at a girls' school. In 1815, not staying a second longer than she has to, she finds… More
  [font=Century Gothic]In "Vanity Fair", daughter of a French opera singer and an English painter, Becky Sharp(Reese Witherspoon), is subsequently orphaned and given over to be educated at a girls' school. In 1815, not staying a second longer than she has to, she finds employment as a governess with a lesser aristrocrat in the distant countryside. On the way there, she spends a week with the family of her only friend, Amelia Sedley(Romola Garai). Amelia finds love with the dashing officer, George Osborne(Jonathan Rhys Meyers), as Becky moves on to her destiny...[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]I had seen the 1932 movie of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel of the conflict between impoverished aristocrats and the increasing middle class but recall little of it. This version of "Vanity Fair" is a handsome enough production but there is no depth and unnecessarily makes a couple of detours via India. Of a large cast, only Romola Garai and Rhys Ifans, surprisingly playing a normal human being, have any impact at all. [/font]

• Mike N

  
  How does memory capture beauty? How is it recalled in the mind? If beauty is a truth, and truth only in the moment, can beauty still be beauty if it's inside a memory? Maybe the way beauty is documented in the mind is that it can't be totally recalled, but one can… More
  How does memory capture beauty? How is it recalled in the mind? If beauty is a truth, and truth only in the moment, can beauty still be beauty if it's inside a memory? Maybe the way beauty is documented in the mind is that it can't be totally recalled, but one can intellectually acknowledge that it was beauty once experienced, and an imprint of the feeling that one experiences with beauty remains forever with you. I think that beauty almost gains meaning by traversing across time through human consciousness, via art or nature or human quality, and in that way it becomes eternal. ... You must forgive me, as living on my own often permits the voices in my head to wander in halves, skipping about my room and tossing clothes and old receipts around, arguing with the other half. As fun as that sounds, it actually turns into a lot of questioning, and it stifles me. Though it may produce a nifty thought, I find that it can suppress my emotions, and I feel vacant and longing. Like my heart and soul got scroonched all cartoon-like into a small milkjar. *unscrews cap and smacks bottom of bottle* In states like that, I need senses to synchronize and attack...so I can feel something. Have you ever felt moved when you hear a certain song that reminds you of a good memory, and combined with the joy of where you're at when you hear the song again (or with what you're doing), and perhaps other (somewhat) positive factors surrounding your life at that moment, you feel...heightened? Hyper-sensitive, hyper-aware maybe. Doesn't happen so often, but it can happen. There are times for me when a song or an image or sometimes even a smell can trigger many memories, and I see them all at once, like a lightning bolt zapping a clear path through my memory and crashing to the floor. My eyes become a balance of introversion and extroversion - they are a collage of these old memories, but they are what they're seeing at the moment as well. And the song goes on. The dance goes on. The flavor goes on. It all builds to a crescendo of energy and nostalgia and of beauty, whatever it is, and you feel like you might erupt from your body in a burst of blood, brains and magic. Then it ends. The alien turns down the knobs, and returns to dormancy. ... I don't know. I wish there was an easier way to arrive to that thinking. But, the emergence of sunshine this past week really put me in high spirits, and it has got my voices questioning my love of winter (though it's not my favorite). Maybe I just didn't realize what these dull months were doing to me. Especially in California. I swear, thanks to the climate, time is a whole new entity in this state. I walked out of the movie theater last night and thought it was July. And the weather here seems to completely forget about Christmas. Mother Nature and Father Time have forged a bond...to trick the souls of the Great Left Coast into bounding across the calendar and losing all track of reality. And I am one of their limp-limbed test puppets. If anybody knows their Guess Who...[i]"It's the neeew Mother Nature taking over..."[/i] In other news: Today is my 3-year anniversary of posting on RottenTomatoes. As decreed by Neumthor...Bow! Bow to your Golden King! [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v625/TerraBrain/allhailKingHomer.gif[/img]

• Panta O

  
  Over 2 hours and 20 minutes of intrigue and real life drama is easy to follow only if you're a historical movie fan... but Mira Nair makes you become one if you're not! Solid work!

• Dannielle A

  
  A lot better than I thought it would be! A story of two women and the men they were supposed to end up with but went down different paths. You'll love the twists and turns and the great ending!

• meril l

  
  Decadent and OTT, just as Vanity Fair should be. It definitely skips some stuff from the novel, but how can it not, as that tome is long and complicated. It probably trivializes some elements of the plot that Thackeray meant to emphasize, and I felt that Rawdon was made smarter than… More
  Decadent and OTT, just as Vanity Fair should be. It definitely skips some stuff from the novel, but how can it not, as that tome is long and complicated. It probably trivializes some elements of the plot that Thackeray meant to emphasize, and I felt that Rawdon was made smarter than he should have been, but movies do not always have to be exactly faithful to the novel - they need to be movies! I for one enjoyed it.

• Yinalí R

  
  Very interesting really.

• Juli R

  
  Of course I liked this costume drama. Reese Witherspoon is effortless in her portrayal of Becky Sharp. I am becoming a real fan of director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), who captures the role India played in the British imagination at the time. I quite like the more positive view of… More
  Of course I liked this costume drama. Reese Witherspoon is effortless in her portrayal of Becky Sharp. I am becoming a real fan of director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), who captures the role India played in the British imagination at the time. I quite like the more positive view of Becky Sharp and other characters. Character faults can be understandable. My only complaint is that the movie dumbed down the book with regard to the relationship with the Marquess of Steyne. She would have had to do more than smile at him to make up for his favour! Nonetheless an enjoyable romp if you are into period pieces.

• Daisy M

  
  <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i30.tinypic.com/hs3ss6.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a> Vanity Fair was a beautiful movie with amazing costumes. But it took a… More
  <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i30.tinypic.com/hs3ss6.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a> Vanity Fair was a beautiful movie with amazing costumes. But it took a lot of concentration to figure out what exactly was going on. Becky Sharp played by Reese Whiterspoon was the daughter of an artist and a chorus girl. She did all she can to put herself in the high society, using her intelligence and sexuality. Reese was great in the role, bringing sympathy to the character Becky. The chemistry between Becky and Rawdon was okay. Not a bad movie, but you should have patience to figure it out.

• Moe E

  
  Stumbled onto this one last night while channel surfing. Marginally better than Marie Antoinette, but that's hardly an endorsement. Might wanna catch it on one of the movie channels, as opposed to paying for a rental.

• Sarah B

  
  They should never have toned down Becky Sharp, Reese Witherspoon is miscast. That said, I love the Indian influences, Rhys Ifans and James Purefoy.

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