Film Review: REBECCA (2020): Faithful Adherence to Story Makes Gothic Novel Come Alive

Rebecca Review

Rebecca (2020) Film Review, a movie directed by Ben Wheatley, and starring Lily James, Jacques Bouanich, Marie Collins, Ann Dowd, Kristin Scott Thomas, Armie Hammer, Jean Dell, Sophie Payan, Pippa Winslow, Lucy Russell, Bruno Paviot, Stefo Linard, Tom Hudson, Jeff Rawle, Ashleigh Reynolds and Keeley Hawes.

Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca starts with the famous first words of Daphne Du Maurier’s Gothic novel of the same name: ‘Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again’. And this is not the only aspect of the novel that the writing team of Jane Goldman, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse has been faithful to. In fact, this almost flawlessly executed film is an ideal example of an adapted screenplay that works mostly because the writers took the original story and recast it almost word for word, for a different medium, in this case film.

The writers don’t try to put their own creative spin on a beloved tale. They don’t switch things around. In fact, all they do is make the pages of the book come alive. And it is this almost dogged adherence to the plotline and details of Rebecca, the book, that makes Rebecca, the film, dazzle with its unique brand of authenticity.

The storyline of Rebecca needs no introduction. Our young protagonist – whose name we never find out because she is only ever referred to as Mrs de Winter (Lily James) – falls in love and ends up marrying far above her station. In fact, she ‘snags’ one of the most eligible bachelors of her time, Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), the recently bereaved and insanely rich owner of Manderley, one of the finest properties in England. But when Mrs de Winter arrives on the property, only to be reminded constantly that she is an unworthy successor to Maxim’s late first wife, Rebecca, things begin to get really serious really fast.

Add to this the presence of the formidable Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), the de Winters’ housekeeper who had worshipped Rebecca, and you have the recipe for many a nightmare. The book, and by extension, the film is extraordinary in many aspects. The dead character dominates the story and, even though we never actually see Rebecca in a flashback, her overpowering presence is felt in almost every scene. The strangely curvilinear ‘R’ of her name keeps turning up on monogrammed handkerchiefs and hairbrushes, completely unsettling the new Mrs de Winter.

Scenes like a bevy of birds flying in a formation that creates the same ‘R’ in the sky are also haunting reminders of the dead woman’s power over her young and ‘immature’ successor.

The film also scores high on the spookiness quotient with the sinister Mrs Danvers showing up mysteriously when you would least expect her, gradually transforming her young new mistress into a mass of nerves.

If you don’t know how the book ends, this film will be a treat to watch. If you do know the ending, the film will still be a visual delight, expertly weaving the drama and intrigue of the book into the medium of cinema. Lily James does a good job as the inexperienced and gauche Mrs de Winter who eventually displays nerves of steel when she tries to protect her husband. Armie Hammer as the debonair but anguished Maxim de Winter would probably do the original author proud. Keeley Hawes, as Maxim’s sister, Beatrice, the only person who shows the young Mrs de Winter any compassion or solidarity, is at her kind and flustered best.

And Kristin Scott Thomas, as Mrs Danvers, is, in one word, frightening, especially as she urges the new Mrs de Winter to jump out of a window, to her death, on the night of a fated ball.

This film, as a period piece, is as good as they come. As mentioned earlier, sometimes the best thing an adaptation can do is to leave the original story alone.

Rating: 8/10

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