Jadie Stillwell Screen Slate Aug 26, 2026

Anderson blinks, or smokes a slow cigarette, or snaps her wrist just a shade too hard to catch an extra drop of chloral—and it’s the little things, really, that get us in the end.

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Eddie Harrison film-authority.com Dec 9, 2025 4/5

…Terence Davies’ The House of Mirth is a fine film, sensitive and acutely observed, with a unique sense of turn of the 1900’s America that’s not nostalgic or glamorous, but cold, calculated, a nest of vipers for all but the most well-heeled….

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David Parkinson Radio Times Oct 30, 2025 4/5

The film echoes Wharton's disgust at the behaviour of the moneyed Fifth Avenue set, while also passing acerbic comment on America's one percent at the turn of the new millennium (and beyond).

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Richard Brody The New Yorker Nov 21, 2022

[An] exquisite and anguished adaptation...

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A.S. Hamrah The Baffler Sep 16, 2020

Society in turn-of-the-century New York shows its harsh, unforgiving, duplicitous face in frozen looks from Anthony LaPaglia, Dan Aykroyd, and Laura Linney,

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PJ Nabarro One Room With A View Dec 15, 2018 4/5

Lily's downfall plays out as an event of great pathos, because the act of dethroning her occurs without the characters and Davies' own diegesis voicing it at every stage.

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Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Aug 18, 2012 B+

Meticulously made with graceful style, Terence Davies' adaptation of Wharton is superior to Scorsese's Age of Innocence, the author's other famous novel.

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Nell Minow Common Sense Media Dec 28, 2010 4/5

A very worthwhile adaptation of Wharton's novel.

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Mark Halverson Sacramento News & Review Aug 7, 2008 2/5

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Betsy Bozdech DVDJournal.com Oct 21, 2006 3.5/4

Anderson gives an astounding performance, trading in Scully's skepticism for Lily's all-too-fragile confidence.

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Rob Nelson City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul Jan 2, 2004

Everything about the film feels ornate but funereal, like an airless luxury suite on the last night of an affair.

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Ed Gonzalez Slant Magazine Aug 1, 2003 4/4

Besides his remarkable ability to render a profound sense of past in all his films, Davies can uncannily map out the emotions of his characters via his mise-en-scene.

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Stacie Hougland Hollywood.com Jul 2, 2003 0/4

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Vadim Rizov Movie-Vault.com Jun 19, 2003 8/10

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Jeanne Aufmuth Palo Alto Weekly May 14, 2003 3/4

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Michael Dequina TheMovieReport.com Dec 8, 2002 3.5/4

Ultimately, each passing minute equates to another cruel twist of the knife, and the audience cannot help but be riveted.

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Sarah Silsbury ViewLondon Oct 30, 2002 3/5

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Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Sep 2, 2002 A

It's a work of great artistry and integrity...

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