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 de Winter from mousy and withdrawn to self-assured and self-assertive is not quite believable and is played out in a very superficial (and unattractive) way in the last couple of minutes of the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.

TV Review: Rebecca (1997)

Rebecca (1997) directed by Jim O'Brien

In this Masterpiece Theater adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's novel, a young woman (Emilia Fox) is vacationing in Monte Carlo with an older woman Mrs. Van Hopper (Faye Dunaway) when the two meet Maxim de Winter (Charles Dance). Max is a recently widowered British aristocrat who is a bit aloof and not at all interested in Van Hopper. He spends a lot of time with the young woman, eventually proposing to her. She agrees, they spend more time traveling Europe, then the couple returns to Max's home, a seaside estate called Manderley. The estate has an extensive staff headed by Mrs. Danvers (Diana Rigg), a cold and calculating housekeeper who is clearly still enamored with Rebecca, Max's first wife. Max also is not quite over his dead wife. Rebecca seems to haunt the house--a lot of her stuff is still there, the whole west wing is closed off (that's where she lived), and the servants are constantly mentioning Rebecca's habits and how wonderful she was. So the young Mrs. de Winter (she's half Max's age) has a hard time adapting to her new life and home.

The production is fairly lavish. The period costumes and the estate evoke the older times. The actors perform well. Max tries to be even-keeled but his temper often gets the better of him. The difficult relationships are compelling with the young Mrs. de Winter struggling to assert herself, fighting her own personality and the shadow of Rebecca. Rebecca herself appears in flashbacks but the viewer never sees her whole face, just close ups of her mouth or eyes, emphasizing the disruptive influence she has. The human drama is good, it's no wonder that the book has been remade several times. 

Recommended--it's not as gothic as the Alfred Hitchcock version but still does a good job.