Brendan-clarke I didn't like ANY of the actors in this film. All of them do their jobs pretty badly. The fault for this probably lies with the director. Essentially, they told a, possibly interesting story, but they did so very incompetently. I was totally incapable to forget that the lead actress was acting. She was absolutely false from start to finish and I found myself strongly disliking her. The movie is full of scenes with Parker facing the camera in a kind of Shakesperean aside which enabled us to hear her poetry. The poetry is OK I guess but was murdered by the wooden acting and the funny voice that Parker was forcing out without a pause. The rest of the movie is just boring and I couldn't bring myself to finish the thing. I wonder if those people were really as tedious and pretentiously awful as they were portrayed as being. I guess I will never know. If you are interested in Parker, read her original work. This film will do nothing at all to endear her to you.

ursulahemard 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.

Framescourer If one was going to get drunk on something during prohibition, what would it have been? Well the ensemble of Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle do, in fact, chug down a great deal of hooch but the Vicious Circle of the title does in fact refer to a number of things, not least the large circular dining table which forms the centre of many of Alan Rudolph's set pieces. Naturally there's but a short step to 'circles of friends' which is the sober bedfellow of the inebriated co-owner of the title, the avarice which possess everyone to sleep with one another.A pre-Oscar Gwyneth Paltrow is the chief draw of this perigee of the narrative, dragging Matthew Broderick's Charles into the well of sin. With the exception of Peter Gallagher's Alan Campbell, this is the absolute ceiling of the male cast... and even they are lost in the dust created by Jennifer Jason Leigh's deceptively intense Dorothy Parker. The problem I have is that she's too drole. I suspect her characterisation is highly accurate, literate; however I find her relationships, love and outrage rather incredible, a little like that of Helen Mirren's Ayn Rand. 4/10

blanche-2 Jennifer Jason Leigh is Dorothy Parker in "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle," a 1994 film also starring Campbell Scott, Peter Gallagher, Stanley Tucci, Matthew Broderick, Gwenyth Paltrow, Jennifer Beals, Lili Taylor, Martha Plimpton, Wallace Shawn - a large, excellent cast which would be needed to tell the story of the glittering literary geniuses who were part of the Algonquin Roundtable. Oh, to have been an adult in those days ('20s-'40s) when wit and education and intelligence were so prized! Parker, a unique talent who could write with pathos and humor, was surrounded by the likes of Robert Benchley, Edna Ferber, Charles Macarthur, Alexander Woolcott, Deems Taylor and Robert Sherwood. The sad thing is that if you're a young person and you happen to catch this film on the IFC channel, you won't have heard of any of these people. Nor will you be interested enough to look them up. People don't seem to have the intellectual curiosity they once did. I realize these are generalizations - just how general remains to be seen.The atmosphere is set wonderfully in this film, which tells something of Dorothy Parker's sad life as she finds and loses love. Unfortunately, with possibly the exception of Campbell Scott as Benchley and at times Ms. Leigh, everyone is PLAYING Woolcott, MacArthur, etc. It's all a kind of let's pretend instead us showing us real people -- as famous as they all were, they were human beings. The script is uneven; the crazy, frenzied scenes at the Algonquin are the best ones, but we don't know these people well enough to be interested in smaller scenes.I had the great pleasure of seeing Jason Leigh on Broadway in "Proof" and she was excellent - she is a very fine actress with a broad range. But in her attempt to successfully have all of Dorothy Parker's externals, she's tripped herself up. I unfortunately only understood maybe 40% of what she was saying. Not only do I doubt that was true of the real Dorothy, I also doubt going that far with the voice was necessary - very, very few people who would see this film ever heard Dorothy Parker speak. It's a little like doing Eliza Doolittle - if you actually spoke pure Cockney, the audience wouldn't understand a word. Parker's droll tones channeled through Leigh's mouth don't work. She does, however, create a very real and very sad person who lived in an interesting time, wrote about it and who loved and drank her way through it.