REBECCA (2020) - Film Review

Ben Wheatley's take on Daphne Du Maurier's classic novel follows a young newlywed's arrival at her husband's imposing family estate on a windswept English coast and finds herself battling the shadow of his first wife, Rebecca, whose legacy lives on in the house long after her death.

This is meant to be a gothic horror, but neither genre is fully fleshed out and instead the script delivers a rather flat and unimpactful romantic suspense - which again, the casting for this is so unevenly matched and lack the chemistry required for these parts. The script written by three screenwriters had a lot to go on from the source material, but instead they tried to sex up this adaptation with very little psychological thriller aspects woven in. They completely missed the emotional intimacy that Maxim and Narrator had (the protagonist is never officially named and the filmmakers stick to this - instead of creating a name based on the author's hints, an unnamed heroine is more apparent on screen) and there really was no build up or suspense towards the physical aspects of their relationship.

Lily James as Mrs de Winter did well with the script she had to work with, because this production in no way demonstrates her range as an actress. She captures the wide eyed innocence in the beginning, but her character progression kind of flips halfway through. A crucial element with this character from the book is how much of a blank canvas she is - even we the reader knows very little about her inside her head, because her own identity has become so shadowed by Rebecca - there is a great opportunity for a writer to build a character from the ground up, this film attempts that with her selfless and compassionate moments - but they barely scratch the surface and the writing gives James little to work with.

Armie Hammer as Maxim de Winter was the most blandest casting in this whole production. Aside from looking the part, Hammer brings next to nothing to this character. Rarely have I sat through a film thinking of actors I would have cast in this role opposite James - Henry Cavill, James McAvoy, Taron Egerton or Michael Fassbender, to name a few. He really lacked the presence this character needed and honestly, I found myself bored during most of his scenes.

A prime example of this casting imbalance was apparent during a pivotal scene, where the viewers and the Heroine learn of the true fate of Rebecca. While we see James tearful, going through a multitude of emotions - Hammer sounds more like he's reading from the script still. I wanted the vulnerability and the intensity this scene deserved and instead, one actor was giving emotion and it fell flat because of her co-star.

Also a side note, but these writers chose to focus on the romance and yet these characters lacked any emotional intimacy - all we saw were them having sex, arguing or Maxim being emotionally unavailable and Mrs in floods of tears. This made me wonder multiple times why these characters were together, because their interactions showed no genuine love between them. The relationship both in writing and acting was immensely surface level and this translated on screen.

Other castings such as Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs. Danvers was remarkably underused. She was one of the strongest cast members and yet we barely saw her on screen - it was a criminal waste! However, she really did capture a creepy intimidating presence, but I wanted to see more sinister sides to this character.

As previously stated, the gothic horror aspects of this film was developed poorly - I went into this expected V.C. Andrews' My Sweet Audrina level gothic horror - where the heroine is truly haunted by the ghost of the character everyone is constantly comparing her to and the draining effect it has on their individuality and mental health. Instead, we get a bland romance that veers into a bizarre court drama towards the end.

Another character this film did a disservice to. Rebecca herself. Despite this film being named after her and her ghost in practically every scene, this film does nothing to explore the first wife. Maxim loathes her, Danvers has an unhealthy maternal affection towards her, Sam Riley's Jack Favell sees her as a damsel in distress and everyone else idealises her memory to an unrealistic level - but what about Rebecca? Rebecca is not really fleshed out, even for an antagonist and this film missed a chance to explore the contrast of both Mrs de Winters.

With the poor pacing and the production's desperate need to give Rebecca a Hollywood happy ending, I sadly found this film to be a bland imitation of gothic horror. This production really missed the point of adapting a gothic horror novel, it's about the psychology and emotional complexity of the dark side of humanity - Rebecca failed to capture even a hint of that, especially with the weak ending. For that reason, I had to rate this TWO AND A HALF STARS.