Nice effects though.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Dorothy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) , the embodiment of the witty, cynical and intellectual Flapper par excellence.You have to stay constantly alert to be able to fully enjoy the very swift, sharp-witted, spicy dialogues, the intellectual, anti-conventional and revolutionary verbal ping-pong between 1920' writers, dramaturges, playwrights and poets during the very much 'alcoholised' prohibition period. It depicts the members of the Algonquin Round Table, a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits, a sort of an American response to 1920' Paris artists congregation. We learn about Dorothy's beginning as an editor and journalist, her lovers, husbands, collaborators and her move to Hollywood. The events (filmed in colour) are juxtaposed with brief black and white insets in which Jennifer Jason Leigh is reciting Dorothy's beautifully haunting poems to immerse us into the thoughts and persona of the famous writer.My compliments to the Soundtrack and editing: loved every tune of it and every note fitted just perfectly its corresponding image!Unfortunately the movie concentrates on Dorothy's emotional development and her 'Vicious Circle' (Algonquin Round Table) and left completely out her left-wing tendencies such as being an advocate of causes like civil liberties and civil rights, and her brushing with the Black List. Also, I was missing more references to the movies she actually wrote. Even if you are not knowledgeable about Dorothy Parker and her works, yet into 1930's movies, or love movies like 'The Great Gatsby', then you will very much enjoy this movie about Hollywood's Golden Age of movie making.All in all: visually ravishing, emotionally titillating and intellectually stimulating, I will definitely look up some more of Dorothy's poems.The Star Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Campbell Scott, Peter Gallagher, Stanley Tucci, Matthew Broderick, Gwenyth Paltrow, Jennifer Beals, Lili Taylor, Martha Plimpton, Wallace Shawn, Stephen Baldwin.

This is a fine movie about a sad writer. It is filmatically fine and above average. Jennifer Jason Leigh is a fine fricken actress.Jennifer's dad, Vic Morrow, of course was killed by a helicopter.Not a helicopter accident. A helicopter killed Vic Morrow by impacting his head with a helicopter blade. This may have cast a sad shadow on her life and intellect. Just my opinion. This is more a movie about Jennifer Jason Leigh's acting than Dorothy Parker.You should watch it as a tutorial on fine acting by a female. You should just breathe in the lovely technique of JJLeigh.She just manifests ordinary sadness amidst Parker's brightness. This movie inserts sepia-like poems *by Dorothy* into this biography and does so, well. The movie tracks the life and times of a certain Dorothy, who doesn't find the rainbow, or Oz.This Dorothy,Parker, ain't quite a poet but her movie is a thrilling and saddening biography. Dorothy Parker wasn't quite a poet I feel because she didn't 'make/write the grand sweep of poetry'. Who am I too judge you ask? Well, Parker writes clever doggerel not poetry. I suspect she may have had the anti-poetry affliction. Kinda like ripping off the derailleurs on your ten-speed bike old girl.Just my opinion. If Dorothy wanted to be a poet, p'raps she coulda opened up the full throttle engine of language of pentameter and hexameter and tetrameter--of glorious Shakespearian good stuff-which English provides. I suspect Dorothy thought she had to be cute or post-modern or whatever in order to be considered a 'real poet'. Just a guess on my part. A poet writes the f**k out of the language in order to discover the true truth of a language. Language, at least in Western culture, has all kinds of meter in it-naturally occurring. Parker was a reductionist- or what I call 'cheap with words'. When can a writer be cheap with words? Answer: Never. Jack Kerouac rolled a giant roll of paper into his remington-rand to complete his major work of writing. Moving along. Campbell Scott is pretty fine here as Robert Benchley. Jennifer Beals is wasted as the Forlorn Wife. This is a fine movie about empty people of great promise. Did I really just write that?

I made the mistake of letting some friends talk me into seeing this movie when it came out in the theaters and I have been sorry ever since. I thought the acting was horrible and the plot was so boring. This movie is my bench mark for "Worst Movie Ever"! Whenever I see a bad movie I always ask myself "was it worse than Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle " and no movie since 1994 has surpassed it yet. You may like it if you are a fan of that period or Ms.Leigh. I have seen her in other movies before since and I have no problems with her or her acting. I Just found this movie to be hard to watch. I hope this review serves as a warning just so you know that not every one enjoys this movie.

A couple of years ago, I visited Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Manhattan, where several representatives from the Algonquin Circle were "meeting." It is absolutely remarkable how much the real Mrs. Parker resembled Jennifer Jason Lee, and Lee does a fine job in the role. The real stand out in this huge ensemble cast (which includes Matthew Broderick, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jennifer Beals) is Campbell Scott, simply remarkable as Robert Benchley. The movie itself is uneven. Early on, we see Parker and Benchley in Hollywood in the 1940s, where they are cordial at best, and then a flashback to Algonquin Circle days (the 1920s) begins. We naturally expect to find the root of the estrangement, as the entire construction screams that "something happened." But the movie doesn't deliver on its promise; we see a complex and tender relationship, but we never see what "happened" that would prevent them to continue in their fond dance of never-quite-romance. Despite its failure to provide a denouement, this relationship is the soul of the movie and very much worth seeing. Otherwise, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle barely rises above the typical tortured artist story. Mrs. Parker was brilliant but unfulfilled. Mrs. Parker drank and attempted suicide. Mrs. Parker recites her own poetry into the camera. Yadda yadda. By the end, Mrs. Parker totters and slurs to such an extent that one wonders if this can possibly be true, it seems a parody. My sense is of a script that veered away from its own fulfillment, and wanders around the outside. 7/10