Rebecca
I’m a bit behind in catching Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s Gothic romance novel, but I was just as drawn into its web of mystery all the same. I did not rewatch Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 Oscar-winner prior to watching this one, and I’m kind of glad that I didn’t; Wheatley’s is its own beast, and the decision to shoot in color makes it feel even more evocative, as the tragedy of Manderley unfolds before our eyes. Everything about the color scheme, including the costume design, is vital to the film’s emotional impact.
There are two separate stories going on concurrently in “Rebecca”- first, the romance, and rebound, between Maxim de Winter (played here by Armie Hammer) and the new Mrs. de Winter (played by Lily James), and then, a potential murder mystery surrounding the fate of the previous Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, led by Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is the head of the house at Manderley, and was Rebecca’s longtime confidant. The way these two stories collide is essential to the overall narrative’s success. In Hitchcock’s film, it was the first landscape for him to explore the psychological impact of a woman haunted by the past (something he would do again in “Vertigo” and “Marnie”); for Wheatley, he turns it into a paranoid, insular thriller where the truth sometimes feels just within reach, and is ready to be completely upended at any moment.
Wheatley could have just aped Hitchcock and turned this into a Gothic horror film, but from the outset, he finds his own way into the story. Part of that is his soundtrack choice, which feels inspired by Baz Luhrmann, though not as egregiously out-of-place, while the rest is the way he has his cinematographer (Laurie Rose), production designer (Sarah Greenwood) and costume designer (Julian Day) create the visual aesthetic. When stills for the film first came out, the yellow suit of Maxim de Winter was one of those “WTF?” choices that seemed like it wouldn’t work, but yellow is a hopeful color in this film- it permeates through the opening scenes, when James’s character and Maxim first meet while Mrs. Van Hopper (the wonderful Ann Dowd), James’s benefactor, is on vacation in Monte Carlo, and again at the end, when it appears as though a new life is ahead. Much of the time spent at Manderley is somber and intimidating, and darker colors and shades dominate the frame; this is as superb an example of visual storytelling as we’ve seen this year, and it drew me into the story in a way very different from Hitch’s, and fairly satisfying in its own right.
Hammer was an interesting choice for Maxim, and the correct one. Even when he and James’s character are falling in love, there is something distant in Maxim, to where he is just out of reach. That will become more pronounced when they arrive back at Manderley, and it’s something Hammer brings out quite well in his performance. James’s character has to do the heavy-lifting in the relationship, and seeing how that can weigh on her is one of the strongest aspects of her performance, especially when the mystery of what happened to Rebecca begins to come into focus for her. The showiest performance in the film is Scott Thomas’s and Mrs. Danvers, and there is something quietly fiendish about the performance that fits well with what Wheatley is going for in terms of tone. The movie never becomes an all-out battle of wills between the new Mrs. de Winter and Mrs. Danvers, and it never should- Mrs. Danvers is trying to wear her down so she will leave Maxim. The discovery of Rebecca’s boat is another twist of the knife, threatening to come between them.
I’m not sure whether the ending works completely. The story is ultimately a romantic tragedy, but that Wheatley was able to find some hope in it, so that the ghosts of the past do not derail a possible future, gives us hope for these characters moving forward. It’s a nice thing to see.
