Movie Review: Rebecca (2020)

Rebecca (2020) directed by Ben Wheatley

This lavish remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic (based on the novel by Daphne Du Maurier) follows the plot--a young lady's assistant (Lily James) is traveling with a boorish older rich woman in France when they run into Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer). Max is fabulously wealthy with an English seaside estate called Manderley. He's also a widower, his wife Rebecca having died in a horrible accident at sea two years earlier. Max and the young lady hit it off and he proposes to her. After a whirlwind marriage and honeymoon, they move back to Manderley. Manderley is run by Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), the lady's assistant of Rebecca and now the manager of the house. She is quite frigid towards the new Mrs. de Winter, who is already having trouble adjusting to her new, much higher social status. A lot of tension builds as her life at Manderley is haunted by the continuing presence of Rebecca.

The movie faithfully follows the story-beats of the drama. The start seems more like a romantic drama than a psychological thriller like previous versions. James and Thomas are adequate in their roles but Hammer is very flat as Maxim, who is supposed to be temperamental. I didn't find any performances emotionally engaging. This movie is a bit more frank about Rebecca being an awful person who manipulated others for her own pleasure and does a good job of showing Mrs. Danvers obsession with Rebecca. The transition of the new Mrs. de Winter from mousy and withdrawn to self-assured and self-assertive is not quite believable and is played out in a very superficial (and unattractive) way in the last couple of minutes of the film. Rebecca is a great story but this is not a great retelling.

Not recommended--the BBC 1990s version or the Hitchcock film are so much better.