Synopsis
A spiritualist medium holds a seance for a writer suffering from writers block but accidentally summons the spirit of his deceased first wife which leads to an increasingly complex love triangle with his current wife of five years.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Dan StevensCharles Condomine
- Leslie MannElvira
- Isla FisherRuth Condomine
- Judi DenchMadame Arcati
- Julian Rhind-TuttDr. George Bradman
- Emilia FoxViolet Bradman
- Dave JohnsHarold
- James FleetHarry Price
- Adil RayMandeep Singh
- Aimee-Ffion EdwardsEdith
Recommendations
- 50
The A.V. Club
Hall has taken away the brittle wit of Coward’s source material and replaced it with little other than some fun performances in search of a better movie. - 40
Empire
This Blithe Spirit dilutes the original’s heady cocktail, serving up a sugary punch rather than a dry martini. - 40
The Observer (UK)
The impish Leslie Mann is well cast as his dead wife, Elvira, who provides a jolt of creative inspiration. Judi Dench’s screechy caricature of psychic Madame Arcati is less winning. - 40
Los Angeles Times
Any trenchant observations to be found in this Blithe Spirit only pop and fizz into thin air like Champagne bubbles. Though effervescent, it’s a bit too ethereal for its own good. - 30
Screen Daily
Coward’s brand of urbane casual elitism is rather past its sell-by date. But the problems run deeper in this energetic but scattershot version of a property which might have been best left to rest in peace. - 30
Austin Chronicle
Completely miscast with uninspired production, this remodeling of Blithe Spirit is a faint shadow of its Coward roots, a resurrected retired poltergeist without its same purpose or vigor. - 30
The New York Times
Surplus buffoonery and a new ending add nothing to the original, leaving us with a movie that obsesses over death while showing all too few signs of life. - 20
The Telegraph
The irresistible comic elegance of the premise – a remarried widower is tormented by the ghost of his first wife – is lost in a mass of pointless embellishments and tinkerings.
