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Netflix recently released a second edition of its ‘Haunting of’ series, The Haunting of Bly Manor, which was described in our review as a ‘love story with ghosts’. That series was based on the classic ghost story by Henry James, The Turn of the Screw. Now Netflix brings another literary classic back to life with its new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Gothic romance Rebecca, a novel that has never been out of print since its first publication in 1938. The novel was famously made into a film in 1940 by Alfred Hitchcock, winning the Best Picture Oscar (his only film to do so) and becoming a beloved classic that is still highly regarded today (particularly for the performance of Dame Judith Anderson as the sinister Mrs. Danvers). The story has been retold over the years on stage, radio, television, five movies and even an opera. With the last TV adaptation produced in 1997, Netflix seemed to feel the time was ripe to bring the story to life once again for a new generation who probably have not even heard of Alfred Hitchcock.
Netflix’s Rebecca is set in the time in which the story was written, so thankfully this has not been updated to make it more ‘modern’. The story begins in Monte Carlo where a young woman (Lily James) working as a companion to the older Mrs. Van Hopper (Ann Dowd) meets the dashingly handsome Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), whom her employer was desperate to spend some time with. De Winter is recently a widower and he quickly falls under the awkward charms of Mrs. Van Hopper’s ward (the young woman’s name is never given). Seeing the blooming relationship, Van Hopper, perhaps out of jealousy, suddenly announces she’s tired of ‘the continent’ and informs her ward that they shall be traveling to New York immediately. Desperate to stay with Max, the woman reveals the travel plans to him and he abruptly proposes to her, insuring she will not have to leave. Mrs. Van Hopper puts on an act of glee over this news, but when Max leaves the room she tells her former employee that she’ll never be able to compete with the ghost of Rebecca. The soon to be ‘second Mrs. de Winter’ tells Van Hopper that she doesn’t believe in ghosts and storms out.
The newly married couple return to the de Winter estate Manderley and the new Mrs. de Winter is immediately overwhelmed by her new surroundings, coming from a very humble background and orphaned after the death of her parents just a few weeks apart. Max introduces his wife to Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), who is asked to give his wife a tour of the house while he attends to some financial business. Almost immediately the new Mrs. de Winter is alienated from the staff and even her husband as it becomes clear the ghost of Rebecca is very real, not in the sense that there is a ghost walking the halls of Manderley, but in that her memory casts a very long shadow that no one is willing to forget, causing the new wife to believe that she can never overcome the devotion of the staff to Rebecca, nor even her new husband’s love for his dead wife. Things reach a boiling point when Mrs. Danvers manipulates Mrs. de Winter’s maid into suggesting she wear a dress similar to the one in a portrait she’s admired for the upcoming costume ball (the balls were something Rebecca was famous for and Max was not keen on reliving those memories but he agreed to let his new wife carry on). When the new Mrs. de Winter makes her grand entrance, Max barks at her to change the dress immediately and it’s then that she realizes it’s the same dress Rebecca wore at a previous ball. But, as with the Henry James story, there is a turn of the screw and the second Mrs. de Winter begins to learn that what she believes about Rebecca may not be what it seemed at first, as the circumstances surrounding her death are revealed putting her and her marriage in jeopardy.
It’s been many years since I’ve seen the Hitchcock version of Rebecca and I’ve not read the novel or seen any of the other adaptations. The Hitchcock version did remain as faithful to the novel as it could, but a few changes had to be made to the story to appease the Production Code office (which can’t be discussed here as one of the changes then is presented as written in the new version). A quick perusal of the Wikipedia page for the novel suggests that this version is very faithful to the source, so that’s a plus. I’ve already seen some reviews that have questioned whether this new version even needs to exist and I say why not? Few people today have seen the Hitchcock version (you can’t find it streaming anywhere), and even fewer have probably read the novel, so this is a decent production that may get a new audience interested in both the novel and original film (hey Netflix, why not add the original to your library?).
Directed by Ben Wheatley, whose credits include The ABC’s of Death, High-Rise and Free Fire (which I hated), this looks to be a movie on a grand scale that he’s never tackled before, and he did a great job. The film looks spectacular, from the Monte Carlo locations to the grandeur of Manderley, Wheatley doesn’t go for a lot of flashy tricks, he allows the story to flow through his fluid direction. Never once in the film’s two hour plus running time was a bored even though I had a passing knowledge of the story. That’s a testament to a script that hewed close to the source and the director’s vision. I can almost forgive Wheatley for Free Fire now. Almost.
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Of course, having seen the original, this cast has a lot to live up to. Hammer is a bit more relaxed than the stuffy Laurence Olivier, making it easy to see why the young woman can so easily fall in love with him. But Hammer is also able to turn from loving to extremely angry in the blink of an eye, almost making Max the villain of the story, forcing Mrs. de Winter and the viewer to question the romance. Lily James is wonderful as the unnamed young woman. She is perfectly, charmingly awkward when she meets Max, but you know she loves him. She also plays the overwhelmed Mrs. de Winter to perfection, allowing the audience to truly feel compassion for her situation, particularly as she deals with Mrs. Danvers and her unhealthy relationship with the dead Rebecca. Sam Riley is appropriately slimy as Rebecca’s cousin Jack, who shows up at Manderley at the invitation of ‘Dani’, as he calls Mrs. Danvers, with the new wife unaware that he’s been banned from the property or that he has something else up his sleeve. Keeley Hawes and Tom Goodman-Hill, as Beatrice Lacy and Frank Crawley, the only sympathetic characters the second Mrs. de Winter has on her side, and both actors turn in nice performances in which they have to balance their relationships with Max, and Rebecca, with the plight of the new Mrs. de Winter. Kristin Scott Thomas has the most difficult role because, if you’ve seen the original film, Judith Anderson gave a performance that is hard to beat in its sinister subtlety. Here Scott Thomas is able to flesh out Danvers a bit more as her backstory and relationship to Rebecca are fleshed out unlike in the original film, so it helps establish her unwavering devotion to the woman who seems to have been her only friend. Scott Thomas had some big shoes to fill and she did a good job even if her behind-the-scenes machinations are obvious to the viewer when poor Mrs. de Winter is blind to them (of course, Mrs. Danvers does excel in the art of gaslighting, such as when questioned about the visit of Jack). Everyone from the main cast to the supporting actors give very nice performances.
So to answer the question other critics have asked: Did Rebecca need to be remade?
Need? Perhaps not, but bringing the story in all of its glory — from the gorgeous cinematography and the musical score to the writing, directing and acting — to a new audience while remaining faithful to the source is never a bad thing as long as it’s done right.
It may spur people on to read the novel, it may lead to a rediscovery of the classic film and the two can certainly co-exist together.
Rebecca has a run time of 2 hours 1 minute and is rated PG-13 for some sexual content, partial nudity, thematic elements and smoking.
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