- Actors: Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie, Christopher Fairbank
- Director: William Oldroyd
- Disc Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
- Subtitles: Spanish
- Region: Region 1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rated: R
- Studio: LIONSGATE
- DVD Release Date: October 17, 2017
- Run Time: 90 minutes
Having no
previous knowledge of the source material (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) that served
as inspiration for the film, Lady Macbeth
provides a protagonist whose compulsive need for control and power above all
else very gradually turns her into an anti-hero. The end result isn’t what
makes the film interesting, but instead it is the process the narrative takes
to change our opinion about the central character, especially since her
ultimate goal is to keep things the way that they are. It isn’t an exciting
film, but somehow manages to remain gripping even when it is mundane, thanks in
part to taut direction by William Oldroyd and an electric breakout performance
by Florence Pugh.
We join
Katherine (Pugh) in on her wedding day in a rural England estate, 1865. This isn’t a
marriage made of love, however, and Katherine is treated with disdain by both
her husband, Alexander (Paul Hilton) and his father, Boris (Christopher
Fairbank). While this dynamic is so needlessly cruel, Katherine’s gravitation
towards another form of animalistic man is somewhat baffling. This is the
biggest problem with the sparseness of the screenplay by Alice Birch. While it
provides a great deal of opportunities for Oldroyd to allow the camera to be
the storyteller, the lack of dialogue gives us little insight to the
motivations of nearly any character on screen.
Although
Alexander and Boris expect specific behavior from Katherine, they also spend a
great deal of time away from the estate, which she mostly spends sleeping until
the discovery of Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis). While exploring the estate in her
boredom, Katherine happens upon Sebastian and a group of other workers in the
process of assaulting and demeaning the house maid (Naomi Ackie). Rather than
being disturbed by this, Katherine is somehow drawn into an affair with
Sebastian in her husband’s absence. After an intended rape turns into
consensual sex, Katherine finds another reason to spend all day in bed.
The world of Lady Macbeth may be limited to the
single estate in rural England,
but it feels lived in and real. The film itself is single-minded in its
premise, and carries it out with precision. I’m just not sure it was enough,
however expertly it was accomplished. Impressed as I was with the filmmaking, I
was letdown by the lack of depth in character development, even if that was
done intentionally in order to better highlight the aforementioned filmmaking.
Even if the film as a whole didn’t completely win me over, the images are stuck
with me, along with the discovery of an impressive new talent in Pugh.
The DVD release
of Lady Macbeth comes with a couple of special features, including a
behind-the-scenes featurette and a photo gallery from the production.
Entertainment Value:
6/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7.5/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
Special Features: 3/10
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