Most critics admire it, and the praise lands in the same place almost every time: the pairing of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. Review after review names their chemistry as the film’s chief asset, the thing that makes its story of desire and ambition believable. George Stevens’ direction and his eye for detail draw steady credit, and the notices from 1951 and those written for its 2013 revival agree with each other to an unusual degree. The Times also singles out Edith Head’s costumes.
The spread is narrow: seven positive reviews, one mixed and none negative. The dissent comes from Time Out, which finds the psychodrama overblown, the social satire dubious, the characters broadly drawn and Shelley Winters’s performance grotesque, while still conceding the leads. Empire allows that the film has failings but says the director’s conviction and the beauty of the stars carry it past them. Variety, by contrast, counts Winters among its strengths.