Vanity Fair

"All's fair in love & war."

Sep 1 2004 PG-13 2h 21m
Drama

Beautiful, funny, passionate, and calculating, Becky is the orphaned daughter of a starving English artist and a French chorus girl. She yearns for a more glamorous life than her birthright promises and resolves to conquer English society by any means possible. A mere ascension into the heights of society is simply not enough. So Becky finds a patron in the powerful Marquess of Steyne whose whims enable Becky to realise her dreams. But is the ultimate cost too high for her?

Plot

The British Empire flowers; exotic India colors English imaginations. Becky Sharp (Reese Witherspoon), the orphaned daughter of a painter and a singer, leaves a home for girls to be a governess, armed with a keen wit, good looks, fluent French, and an eye for social advancement. Society tries its best to keep her from climbing. An episodic narrative follows her for twenty years, through marriage, Napoleonic wars, a child, loyalty to a school friend, the vicissitudes of the family whose daughters she instructed, and attention from a bored marquess who collected her father's paintings. Honesty tempers her schemes.

Written by

Matthew Faulk, Mark Skeet, Julian Fellowes

Directed by

Mira Nair

Cast

Reese Witherspoon, Romola Garai, James Purefoy

Crew

View crew

Production Countries

United States of America, United Kingdom

Production Companies

Alliance Films, Focus Features

Languages

Français, English, Deutsch

Awards

2 wins & 5 nominations total

Trailers
Vanity Fair (2004) - Official Trailer
Scores
# of Votes
23,811
Average Rating
6.2 out of 10
Metascore
53
Popularity
NA