Wallace Shawn,
Larry Pine,
Andre Gregory,
Brooke Smith,
Julianne Moore
... see more 
In the late 1980s, noted theatrical director Andre Gregory assembled a group of friends and actors and began rehearsing a new translation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya by David Mamet, not with any sp... read more
DVD Release Date: September 24, 2002
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Stats: 78 reviews
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Flixster Reviews (78)
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March 1, 2012fb20312798It strips Chekhov to its bare bones and its that simplicity of the production as well as the upfront acknowledgement of the artifice of this performance and the theatre in general that makes this work so well. I also like that Louis Malle just decided to film what the actors and ... read more
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October 30, 2009Amazing. Louis Malle makes a film about the love for the theater, and the love for the art, and the joy, the insight that it provides to life. All the cast is exemplary, but I think Brooke Smith is the revelation here. It takes a while to grow on you, but if you go past the first... read more
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January 19, 2007BEAUTIFUL...JUST BEAUTIFUL!!! Louis Malle's final film is, at it's most basic, a run through/ rehearsal of David Mamet's translation of Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA under the direction of Andre Gregory. But this gorgeous film winds being SO much more than just a documentation of ... read more
Critic Reviews
July 6, 2010
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
August 12, 2008
Todd McCarthy, Variety
The performances are precise, the language is alive and well spoken and the setting is striking, but Vanya on 42nd Street still suffers rather heavily from the limitations of filmed theater. Full Review
August 12, 2008
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Malle adeptly eases us into the play so we can't tell at what precise moment Chekhov takes over, an ambiguity that becomes the film's triumph as well as its key limitation. Full Review
May 20, 2003
Janet Maslin, New York Times
The elegant understatement of this production turns it into a livelier experiment, a fluent, gripping version of one of Chekhov's more elusive plays. Full Review
May 12, 2001
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
This live-wire Vanya, freshly observed for the '90s, is fiercely funny, touching and vital.
January 1, 2000
Hal Hinson, Washington Post
In terms of dramatic action, almost nothing happens, and yet Malle's fluid, invisible style carries us deep into the hearts and minds of these characters. Full Review
January 1, 2000
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
A lovely, intimate rethinking of Anton Chekhov's Russian classic Uncle Vanya. Full Review
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Vanya on 42nd Street may be the most innovative and successful straight film adaptation of any play. Full Review
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
A film which reduces Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" to its bare elements: loneliness, wasted lives, romantic hope and despair. To add elaborate sets, costumes and locations to this material would only dilute... Full Review
March 10, 2012
Sean Axmaker, Turner Classic Movies Online
... a record of a creative collaboration that has a life of its own, at once documentary, filmed rehearsal, play within a play, and private production restaged for a camera... Full Review
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Vanya on 42nd Street
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