In the interest of getting “hard” copies of my work under one roof, I plan to spend the next few weeks posting the entire archive of my film journalism here on ScullyVision. With due respect to the many publications I’ve written for, the internet remains quite temporary, and I’d hate to see any of my work disappear for digital reasons. As such, this gargantuan project must begin! I don’t want to do it. I hate doing it. But it needs to be done. Please note that my opinions, like everyone’s, have changed a LOT since I started, so many of these reviews will only represent a snapshot in time. Objectivity has absolutely no place in film criticism, at least not how I do it.
Complete Unknown, The Light Between Oceans, Denial, and now My Cousin Rachel – it seems the legacy of Rachel Weisz is one of being absolutely tremendous in movies that are well below her level of talent. Not that any of these movies are bad (well, except for The Light Between Oceans, which was very bad), just that they’re all so painstakingly mediocre that it seems unfair to have one of the finest talents working today trapped in the center of each, working her proverbial ass off. It’s even worse knowing that since the vehicles are somunremarkable, her performances will be forgotten, or worse, never seen at all.
My Cousin Rachel is the second adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel of the same name. The first film came out in 1952, where audiences of the time likely found the tale to be much more twisted. Still, this 2017 adaptation is not without its charms. For me, most of these charms came in the time after the movie ended and I began to ruminate on the events of the film. During the film, I was so sure I knew exactly where everything was going (and I did – you will too) that I was mostly just waiting for it to come to an end.
Philip is a young man who was raised by Ambrose, his older cousin and lord of a lush estate. WhenAmbrose begins to fall ill, he relocates to Italy for its therapeutic climate, leaving Philip in charge of the household and the land. Time passes and Philip receives conflicting letters from Ambrose. Some speak of how he has fallen in love with another cousin, Rachel, while others beg for rescue, indicating that Rachel is keeping him against his will. Philip decides to pay his cousins a visit only to find that the two were wed, and that Ambrose had recently passed away.
This takes place in a time where cousins marry each other and it’s considered normal, so you just kinda have to get over it.
Philip suspects that Rachel is indeed the sneaky captor as depicted in the letters, but the more he gets to know her the more he falls under her spell, and the more I start wondering if this movie will feature Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” on its soundtrack (it doesn’t). But maybe she’s not a gold digger at all. Maybe he’s just a fool.
And that’s pretty much the whole of it. As their maybe romance maybe flourishes we are left wondering whether or not Rachel is a master manipulator or a victim of the covetous whims of a man who’s never been told no. In a way, the movie speaks of the dangers inherent to blindly playing into a long-held system, but conversely it advocates the need for such systems to exist.
It’s all so much melodrama wrapped in a mystery told through handwritten letters and askance looks across lavish feasts, and if you’re into this sort of thing, My Cousin Rachel is much less stuffy than one would expect. It’s a dull sizzle, but a sizzle nonetheless, and it leads up to a satisfying, purposefully frustrating climax.
Basically, it’s a movie based on a really old book.
My Cousin Rachel opens in Philly theaters today.
