93
Metascore
17 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumFor the most part, this is a very close adaptation of Booth Tarkington's underrated novel about the relentless decline of a wealthy midwestern family through the rise of industrialization, though Welles makes the story even more powerful through his extraordinary mise en scene and some of the finest acting to be found in American movies.
- 100Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderA masterpiece in every way.
- 100Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasAn elegiac saga of the decline and fall of a rich small-town American family, based on a Booth Tarkington novel.
- 100Time OutTime OutWith immaculate period reconstruction, and virtuoso acting shot in long, elegant takes, it remains the director's most moving film, despite the artificiality of the sentimental tacked-on ending.
- 100The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe Magnificent Ambersons is still masterly. It’s the movie that all other films about families in decline are measured against.
- 90The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelThe film wasn’t completed in the form that Welles originally intended, and there are pictorial effects that seem scaled for a much fuller work, but even in this truncated form it’s amazing and memorable.
- 88LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenLarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenThe bold cinematic techniques Welles employed in Citizen Kane are put to even more sophisticated use here.
- All in all, The Magnificent Ambersons is an exceptionally well-made film, dealing with a subject scarcely worth the attention which has been lavished upon it.