[1] Based on Mackenzie's own stage play, the film stars Patricia Clarkson as The Baroness, a Quaker woman from Philadelphia who moves to Paris with her husband, The Baron (Colm Feore) in the 1880s; however, her egalitarian ideals conflict with the elitism of Parisian society, particularly when she launches a plan to rehabilitate and bring into society a wild girl (Caroline Dhavernas) who was raised in a pig sty, leading The Duchess (Louise Marleau) to attempt to engineer The Baroness's downfall.
[3] Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail rated the film two stars, writing that "Handsome to look at, hard to digest, The Baroness and the Pig is an allegorical costume drama that feels something like Pygmalion (Pigmalion?)
The film shares Greenaway's production designer, Ben Van Os, and his penchant for titled chapters, technology and dialogue about culture.
With apparent narrative influences from Henry James to François Truffaut's The Wild Child to Jean Genet's The Maids, the film is fairly dry chewing.
"[2] Ken Eisner of The Georgia Straight heavily criticized the film, writing that "This stunningly undernourished drama, shot in Quebec City and Budapest but set in 1880s Paris, is the kind of international hash-up that gives coproduction treaties a bad name.