Film Review: HEDDA (2025): Tessa Thompson Delights in a Wickedly Twisted Update on an Old Story

Hedda Review

Hedda (2025) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Nia DaCosta and starring Tessa Thompson, Nina Hoss, Imogen Poots, Nicholas Pinnock, Tom Bateman, Finbar Lynch, Mirren Mack, Saffron Hocking, Jack Barry, Kathryn Hunter, Sam Hoare, Stacey Gough, Mark Oosterveen and Nicholas Bishop.

Filmmaker Nia DaCosta creates a wonderful atmosphere in a movie that’s all dressed up with nowhere particularly noteworthy to go, Hedda. That doesn’t mean it’s not completely absorbing to watch. It is. Based on the work of Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler, but updated to the 1950’s, this film is a showcase for the versatile Tessa Thompson’s remarkable talents. If the film feels like it’s all a lot of build-up, well, it is. This movie exists for its characterizations more than its plot development although intriguing things certainly do happen. It’s a comedy of manners intensified by its heightened political agenda and social commentary on the need for individualism and accomplishment vs. conformity and settling for the mundane.

Thompson takes on the title role with terrific precision and vigor. Hedda shoots a gun at a man in front of her early on which hints at the type of person she is – a fearless one. Hedda is attached to Tom Bateman’s character, George Tesman, but she finds herself much more intrigued in the lives of a pair of writers, Eileen Lovborg (Nina Hoss) and Thea Clifton (Imogen Poots). Hoss chews scenery as the character who sends Hedda into her own sense of madness. Set at a party with many offbeat and intriguing characters, the movie often has the feeling of Ready or Not or Clue for some reason, but nothing similar to what happens in those films unfolds here. This is more an examination of feelings about life, class status and attacking our own personal desires head-on.

Thea Clifton is a timid soul who has carved out a decent place for herself in society. Thea’s not exactly going to be Hedda’s best friend, though. Hedda sees in Eileen a strong and determined woman and the type of person she desires despite her own place in the society the world of the movie presents. There are feelings that Hedda possesses towards the situation regarding Eileen and Thea that makes for some interesting plot developments, indeed. It’s easy to keep your eyes on Hedda every step of the way, wondering which way she’ll turn next.

Nicholas Pinnock, in a solid turn, serves as Judge Roland Brack who also plays a key role in this story that is really thin if you look at it underneath a microscope, but the film has some volatile moments of self-realization for the character Thompson embodies. Unfortunately, the film moves very slowly towards the events it chooses to unveil after the sluggish first hour. Though the first hour is a slow-burn, to say the least, the dialogue leaps off the screen with social commentary and it’s quite humorous to hear Eileen offer people copies of her book in exchange for a review. Times haven’t changed too much from back then, except maybe people were a bit more forward if they had the class status to allow them to be back then.

This is a twisted film when the viewer sees where it’s headed because of the restraints or freedoms some characters take on themselves. Structured like a thriller, but without much shock value in today’s climate, the movie is more or less a character study of Hedda and her desires to do more with her life than she is currently doing in the moment. The movie examines how professors were not usually women and if they were women, they were typically white women. For a woman like Hedda to succeed, she would need to up the ante a bit and this movie has some wicked suggestions of what she could be actually capable of doing with her life.

When a character encounters a pair having sex, it’s another funny moment, but, soon, the whole picture takes a turn towards an ending which could be a let-down for those expecting something different. Keep in mind that this is based on the work of Ibsen who wasn’t always concerned with telling a compelling story as much as revealing facts and critiques about certain characters’ flaws and ambitions.

Hedda is a good film despite its flaws. Tessa Thompson is determined to make this role the highlight of her career thus far and succeeds beyond a reasonable doubt. Nina Hoss can steal scenes with her larger than life presence while Poots is also intriguing as the complete opposite of Hoss’s character. Kathryn Hunter also excels in her role as the eccentric Bertie. Each character here serves a very distinct purpose to shed light on the time period the film sets itself in and the characters it so richly portrays.

At the end, Hedda raises more possibilities than it actually provides satisfying resolutions, but the movie is clearly a vehicle for Thompson to do what she does best – act up a storm and provide another remarkable characterization in addition to her already distinguished body of work. Nia DaCosta’s movie could even demand a second viewing because it’s not really about getting to the core of the story line, rather it’s about the insights on the lifestyles of the characters it portrays. If one is to wait for the plot to provide startling revelations, then one will miss all the keen observations about life that make Hedda an insightful and engaging motion picture.

Rating: 7/10

Leave your thoughts on this Hedda review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Mobile App, Google News, Apple News, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, Flipboard, Bluesky, and Threads.