Lily James. Armie Hammer. Kristin Scott Thomas. Sam Riley. All directed by Ben Wheatley. Sounds great! But the Netflix produced remake of Hitchcock‘s 1940 classic Rebecca is an utter bore, making you question why did these people agree to be in this film. What’s the point in remaking a great film? If you’re going to remake a film at least attempt to cover new ground. The frustrating thing is that Rebecca isn’t bad nor good. It’s that there are moments of real intrigue, namely a scene where Mrs. de Winter is swallowed whole by a Lovecraftian rose bush. These scenes, however, are overshadowed by how supremely dull the film is.
The aesthetic of the film is sanitized to such an extent you’d forget this film was directed by the man who made Kill List and A Field in England. Maybe that’s a product of being a Netflix film, but perhaps it’s a deliberate choice. The choice to cast Armie Hammer as Maxim de Winter is a most deliberate one however that doesn’t pay off. What little emotional depth the film provides is ignored by Hammer, who delivers a performance that compounds the film’s faults. As Hammer is, the film is; lifeless, musty and quite frankly tiresome.