Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

Mr. and Mrs. Bridge is wise and funny and just a little bit scary. Though it's an adaptation, it has the manner of a true original.

To their credit, and to the credit of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in the title roles of Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, the movie doesn't condescend to these relics of the recent past, but treats them with poignancy and humor. [21 Nov 1990]

This memory piece, shy in manner but tough in spirit, has brought out the best in everyone connected with it.

The film is so well made and acted, because it captures its period so meticulously.

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge is watchable but also stiff and remote.

It's respectful but not particularly vigorous or enlightening.

It's hard to imagine that even a documentary on the apparently harmonious marriage of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward -a union established in 1958 and still going strong - could be duller than this stodgy addition to the Merchant-Ivory menu of good taste.