Avis des critiques

The Bostonians is a deceptively edgy proposition: sterner and less vibrant than its source but also more compassionate. Its distinctly feminine sensibilities... are offset by a certain curtness, a refusal to linger on grand emotional moments that both recurs throughout many Ivory films and is quite true to the period literature from which those films are adapted.

The subtly formed subtext of The Bostonians evokes gay sensibilities once taboo for mainstream movies in a manner that respects the reticence of the novel’s era while speaking to the more liberated outlook of our own... [Yet the film] is also plenty compelling for other reasons, from the pleasures of its images and performances to its ingenuity in adapting the psychological interiority of a perennially film-resistant author.

Like many of the best Merchant Ivory films, [The Bostonians] combines historical drama with timeless emotions to show us that there are still lessons to be learned from the stories of the past.

[A] sumptuous and richly correct-looking production... “The Bostonians” doesn’t flow; Ivory does not so much build as stack confrontation upon confrontation... [Yet] James’ story is so fascinating and Redgrave so urgently fine that you can lose sight of these lapses and have an eminently satisfying time.

[James's] writing is so observationally rich that it eludes the need to know the hearts of its heroes. The neat power of Ivory’s film is that he resists filling in those spaces. He sticks easily to their novelish ambiguities, the way they flood pages with details.

At times too decorous, too slow for its own good, [The Bostonians] is given guts by intense, acutely observed performances from Reeve and Redgrave.

James is notoriously difficult to convey on film and the film moves at a snail's pace; as a result it's a tad dull, despite the loving attention paid to period detail.

Ivory’s chief talent seems to be his ability to attract name performers with the lure of classy material (here an early novel by Henry James), but once he has them he’s helpless—he lets them fall back on the same shtick they’d be doing in the crassest commercial film.

[The Bostonians] is one of Ivory's most successful works to date. Its chief attributes are a brilliant supporting cast headed by Vanessa Redgrave and a glowing recreation of period Boston.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay is less a response to its source than a careful college outline of it... Ivory's camera behaves like a tourist trapped meekly behind a velvet rope at a historical reconstruction, and most of his actors seem afraid they might damage the nicely chosen antiques the curator has permitted them to perch upon.

One of [Ivory, Merchant, and Jhabvala's] best films, as well as one of the best adapations of a major literary work ever to come onto the screen... ''The Bostonians'' is, from its opening shot to last, a rare delight, a high comedy with tragic undertones, acted to passionate perfection.

[The Bostonians] doesn't exactly gallop along - this is Henry James, after all - but it canters with an easy, flowing grace. Add a long list of vivid characters, and a mood as rich and proud as old Boston itself, and you have a hearty entertainment that's as thoughtful and engaging (if not so deep or imposing) as its source.