Click here to copy URL

Valmont

1989

Milos Forman

Colin Firth, Annette Bening, Meg Tilly, Fairuza Balk ...

6.6

4,124

Drama. Romance Set in Baroque France, a scheming widow and her lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman. The lover, Valmont, bets that he can seduce her, even though she is an honorable woman. If he wins, he can have his lover to do as he will. However, in the process of seducing the married woman, Valmont falls in love. Based on the same novel as "Dangerous Liaisons."

	Author	Review
United States	Sheila Benson Los Angeles Times	"'Valmont' is gorgeous, and for a while you can coast on its costumes and production details (...) But seductive as his surfaces are, Forman’s tack doesn’t hold for long"	NEU
United States	Variety	"An extremely well-acted period piece that suffers from stately pacing and lack of dramatic high points."	NEU
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"The film is rapturously beautiful, enticing us into a lush, aristocratic world"	POS
United States	Rita Kempley The Washington Post	"[Forman] seems to be directing a mini-series, all sloppy opulence. If the people were frivolous, then so is the approach"	NEU
United States	Janet Maslin The New York Times	"For every necessary touch that 'Valmont' has reduced or dispensed with (...) there is another, less vital moment that has been expanded"	NEG
United Kingdom	David Parkinson Radio Times	"While Frears's is truer to the calculating spirit of the book and has the showier cast, Forman's has greater human interest and the more heartfelt performances (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	William Thomas Empire	"The tale is told with great style and evident relish, takes far too long and makes no moral point (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Time Out	"It's a warm, energetic, humorous film, with some excellent ensemble playing; but the cruelty and psychological complexity are lost, and the ensuing tragedy has little resonance."	NEU

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.