To provide a retardation film capable of effectively suppressing the deterioration of display quality without causing a light and shade pattern on a display image, even when the retardation film is arranged between the liquid crystal cell and the polarizing plate.

The retardation film has at least a transparent support, an alignment film and a retardation layer which is adjacent to the alignment film and comprises a liquid crystalline compound, where a refractive index adjusting layer is disposed between the transparent support and the alignment film such that either of the difference between refractive index N1 of the transparent support for the light of wavelength range 420 to 480 nm and refractive index N2 of the refractive index adjusting layer or the difference between the refractive index N2 of the refractive index adjusting layer and refractive index N3 of the alignment film becomes less than 0.04.