The House of the Spirits 1993

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: The flaws aren't fatal. The beauty and brilliance that might have been, don't preclude the quality and bravery that exist on the screen. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Inert from its opening moments to its too-long-delayed close, this lackluster production is an example of international filmmaking at its least attractive, and a misstep in the careers of pretty much everyone involved. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: The House of the Spirits is like Gone With the Wind with the fun and excitement replaced by lofty. All that's left is the wind. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: How can an accomplished director take a great novel, the best actors working and the finest technicians available and make a film so... bland? It's a puzzlement. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: It does take daring chances with a book that could not have been adapted otherwise, using extraordinary actors to rise above its occasional lapses. The lack of fidelity is often offset by intelligence of a subtler kind. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: August's earnest International Motion Picture Adaptation remains all too tethered to earth, weighted down by a surfeit of good intentions. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: This is really quite an achievement. It brings together Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas, and Vanessa Redgrave and insures that, without exception, they all give their worst performances ever. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Bille August has done a fine job with Isable Allende's tale, crafting a captivating motion picture, but it's hard not to recognize the flaws, and wonder about the lost potential. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: All of the characters have the right names, all of the necessary events occur, and indeed the very best local actors have been engaged. But the soul has been mislaid. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It's always painful when a brilliant book becomes a bust of a movie. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: The thing works in its goofy way, mainly because Bille August is a man of apparently dauntless conviction. He has written and directed every scene with serene authority. Read more

Time Out: Irons gives an excruciating performance - what Streep's genuinely warm, wonderful Clara sees in him you'd need ESP to fathom. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Just as the characters' motivations are mostly crude rather than complex, and the view of class politics superficial and romantic rather than acute or intelligent, so is the film's treatment of the novel's magical realism on the mundane side. Read more

Joe Brown, Washington Post: Cinematographer Jorgen Persson gives The House of the Spirits plenty of picturesque moments, but August's stolid, straightforward direction isn't suited to Allende's magical-realist voice. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: The viewer doesn't have to be familiar with the book, however, to realize the film's a pretentious failure. Read more