Direction: Nia da Costa
Country: USA
Adapting Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler for the screen, Nia DaCosta delivers a pretentious period tale with an unsatisfying finale. The film’s eccentric rhythms prove insufficient to buoy an overstuffed plot marked by intrigue, machinations, and insincere pathos.
The film stars Tessa Thompson—who also co-produces—as the title character, a strong-willed, manipulative socialite interrogated about a shooting that occurred at her lavish party. It is at this same gathering that she is reunited with a former lover, the alcoholic writer Eileen Lövborg (Christian Petzold’s early muse Nina Hoss), and the latter’s new girlfriend, Thea Ellison (Imogen Poots), whom Hedda knows from her school years. Jealousy, overpowering egos, desire, and bourgeois feminine dominance all play into this slyly playful yet misbegotten game, a muddle made worse by the smug self-assurance of its mise-en-scène.
Awkward and atonal, Hedda feels like one of Cassavetes’ fervent dramas but without the genuine discomfort or emotional and psychological acuity that defined them. It is excessively dramatic, emotionally inaccessible, and ultimately absurd. The disparity between expectation and delivery is vast, resulting in a wholly doomed film that insists on putting on a brave face throughout its subpar staging. It may leave you wanting to take a long, cold shower afterward.
