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Poor, poor Armie Hammer.
For starters, his British accent is laughable, and his physicality mistakes stiffness for power.
But Lily James as the unnamed heroine at its center fares no better.
If you think I sound a bit harsh now, Im just getting started.
And I keep going back to the acting.
Hammer seems lost in his role.
When called to express Maxims volcanic anger, Hammer can barely muster a flame.
Jamess performance as Mrs. de Winter doesnt elicit the sympathy necessary, either.
She hunches her shoulders, possessing the flighty physical expressions of a wounded sparrow.
I put sex in quotation marks because theres no heat or sensuality to be found there.
There is one actorly bright spot in the film, though: Kristin Scott Thomas.
With a strained smile and masklike disposition, shes a terror to behold.
In 2020, Mrs. Danvers is stripped of the lesbian undertones injected into the original Hitchcock-Selznick adaptation.
Rebeccasits at an intersection of problems indicative of the state of contemporary Hollywood as a whole.
Both James and Hammers careers rest on their looks fitting into the slim parameters of institutionally accepted beauty.
Not to get too Norma Desmond on you, but where are the interesting faces?
This isnt all that surprising.
Erotic thrillers have been on the decline for decades in the U.S.
But the leastRebeccacould do is look lush and beautiful.
Instead, its color palette is all gangrene and corrosion.
Inside, its a vacuum-sealed museum that lacks human touch.
The costume design by Julian Day is similarly baffling.
Why would Maxim de Winter, who is pure money, wear the same bile-yellow suit again and again?
And the blocking is especially sloppy.
I dont think this new adaptation was doomed from the start.
Make Mrs. de Winter American.
