Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

fkkemble Good caste, appalling script and transparent plot. My wife and I love period drama's but this wasn't one. I turned it off after an hour. I have to say that Henry James is generally pretty dismal as a writer in my opinion and so the movie was seriously hamstrung from the start. I really like Jeremy Northam but his Italian accent made me want to punch him. I think that Uma Thurman is a good actress but I don't see her in this genre sadly. The British are the absolute kings of period drama in my opinion and so the US producers should really concentrate on the big screen thriller or sci-fi movies which they are so good at. If the British had produced and directed this movie there may have been improvement but they would never have picked it in the first place.

triple8 SPOILERS THROUGH:The first half of The Golden Bowl was, for me, almost unwatchable. As mentioned by many, the formal stilted dialog was really really tough to enjoy and since I didn't know a whole lot about the plot(haven't read the book) much of the movie made no sense. This is a very hard movie to follow and I was also put off by the lack of emotion in the performances. At times it seemed like the performers were just reading dialog and I really did almost turn it off.But the thing is, the second half of the movie is really interesting. It's like the movie and performers come into their own and all of a sudden, I got sucked into the whole story. By the time the end rolled around I was riveted. And the performers went from stiff and stilted to really really moving.So I asked myself what in the world do I rate a movie like this? It really is a tough movie to decide if I liked or not when the first half was absolutely awful and the second half was not just good, but riveting. So finally I gave it a 7. It's really interesting in that I started off thinking all the performers were miscast and ended thinking they were all really good. This really is a movie that takes it's time in sucking you in.I do wish it had been a little easier to follow( movie seems to assume that it's audience is familiar with the book) and some of the stilted dialog had been dropped. I understand that the period it was taking place in contributes to the dialog but it did make it very hard to become involved in the story and as mentioned, the performers came off initially as stiff and just not very comfortable, though that changed greatly as the story went on.Beckinsale and Nolte were, in my opinion, the best and all the characters stay with you after. Uma Thurman, while originally seeming the most miscast, winds up delivering with one of the most powerful scenes in the film at the end and that one scene alone makes her character extremely memorable.The landscapes were also very lovely and the story, in spite of the difficulty in following it, was compelling and the movie really does linger with you in a way that one might not expect, particularly during the first half. In my opinion, the ending was also way to rushed but since I haven't read the book I have no idea if the movie was just following the book. I'd see this again and will recommend it to fellow moviegoers I know. At the same time, if someone loses patience with the story and turns it off midstream I can understand that too because a lot of patience is needed in the beginning. It's definitely worth seeing though especially for period movie lovers. My vote's 7 of 10.

Rosie This film was pretty bad. Uma Thurman was painfully bad in a hysterical over-the-top performance, Jeremy Northam - who I usually love - had this really weird Italian accent going on and Kate Beckinsale and Nick Nolte, while giving decent performances, were just boring. It's a combination of boring characters and characters which are just awful – and not in the fun Dangerous Liaisons kind of way – that make this film kind of painful in a "I can't believe I stayed up until 2:00am watching this crap" way. I only gave it a 3 because some of the scenery is very pretty to look at. If you are a huge Henry James fan, then you might want to give it a try, otherwise, run! Run far away!!

BofferBings "The Golden Bowl" can discourage even the most ardent fans of period dramas. Being a fan of Henry James's writings, I found this movie incredibly boring. The wooden performances by Uma Thurman and Jeremy Northam certainly did not help. For a truly emotional and honest piece of filmmaking, watch "The House of Mirth," for fascinating, if controversial, camera work, watch "The Portrait of a Lady," for lavish settings and costumes that actually mean something, watch "The Age of Innocence."