Direction: Ben Wheatley
Country: UK / USA
Working from a script by Jane Goldman, Joe Schrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, British director Ben Wheatley (Sightseers; A Field in England; High-Rise) doesn’t succeed in adapting Rebecca, the famous novel by Daphne du Maurier and immortalized as a motion picture by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940.
There’s an embarrassing lack of freshness in this remake that will hamper many viewers from being charmed, thrilled or even intrigued by this emotionally-bland, color version of the aforementioned literary work.
The splendorous decors and an adequate performance by Kristin Scott Thomas as the villainous housekeeper - in opposition to the unconvincing acting of Lily James and Armie Hammer as the newly married de Winters - are the best this romantic psychological thriller has to offer. The soundtrack revealed to be another setback together with an inadequate lightness in a storytelling that required more dramatic grandeur and emotional depth.
