The Birdcage 1996

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: An American remake with plenty of new pizazz. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: This isn't the supreme masterpiece it might have been, but Nichols's direction is very polished and some of the lines and details are awfully funny. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The beauty of The Birdcage is that its jokes and its message are one and the same. These characters couldn't change themselves if they tried. And only a fool would want them to. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: One of those rare motion pictures with side-splitting laughs where the humor never stays dormant for long. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: What makes Mike Nichols' version more than just a retread is good casting in the key roles, and a wicked screenplay by Elaine May, who keeps the original story but adds little zingers here and there. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: A glossy miscalculation with Nathan Lane and Robin Williams. Read more

Time Out: It doesn't so much champion diversity as celebrate conformity. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: The Birdcage is a scream. Read more

Hal Hinson, Washington Post: If The Birdcage isn't exactly the Mike Nichols-Elaine May movie of our dreams, it does manage to transform what was formerly a campy bit of French fluff into one of the loopiest, most hysterical family-values movies ever made. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Basically, the movie's an extended setup for a dinner-table comedy of errors, in which the mismatched relatives confront one another in a nerve-racking test of appearances. Read more