My Cousin Rachel (2017)

It's been four days since I watched My Cousin Rachel, and I still haven't been able to make up my mind what I thought about it. I have been thinking about it quite a lot though, which says something about its effect on me.

I'm unfamiliar with the Daphne du Maurier novel that serves as the source material for the film, so aside from the basic concept (man becomes infatuated with woman who may have been responsible for his cousins's death), the story was completely fresh to me - and the turns in characterisation and plot managed to surprise me throughout.

The performances in the film are strong for the most part. Rachel Weisz handles the ambiguity (and often inscrutability) of the eponymous character well, although at times that makes her something of a blank slate; how well can you judge what an actor is conveying when you're not quite sure what that actor should be conveying? Sam Claflin's onscreen disintegration is slightly easier to judge and is handled cleverly, eliciting empathy, irritation, concern and fear.

Where the adaptation perhaps falls down is in the direction. Performances are handled well, and the direction shifts the story along nicely, but there is something pedestrian to the design of the film. The mood of the scene rarely seemed to match the mood of the characters - perhaps it was too subtle for my to pick up, but I left the film with a sense that there should have been more heightened drama. Compared with something like this year's Lady Macbeth, which had an even more restricted setting, the mis-en-scene seemed overly plain.

That could be my four-day-old memory being unfair to an otherwise decently mounted production, but I do have the distinct impression of being slightly underwhelmed in that area.