The film stars Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Reeve, Madeleine Potter, and Jessica Tandy.

When Olive's distant relation, the chauvinist Southern lawyer Basil Ransom, falls in love with Verena and wishes to marry her — to relegate the young woman to the kitchen and the nursery — Olive and Ransom find themselves competing for Verena's affections.

The charismatic Miss Tarrant must then choose whether to get herself to the nunnery of Olive's social cause or submit to the sensual but subservient life promised by Ransom.

[5] On Metacritic, The Bostonians has a score of 59 out of a 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

[6] Roger Ebert praised the film, giving it 3 out of 4 stars and observing: Intelligent and subtle and open to the underlying tragedy of a woman who does not know what she wants, a man who does not care what he wants, and a girl who does not need what she wants.