Lady Macbeth (2016)

Despite being mind-numbingly slow and tedious, this film has some intangible charm which lifts it above a one-star disaster. As others have said, Wuthering Heights this is not, although it clearly believes it is in the same ballpark. As an example of everything wrong with the British film industry, this is first-rate - vis a vis it fully demonstrates the Prime Directive of British studio filmmaking: "As long as it's in period costume, it doesn't need a story."

Fmovies: Lady Macbeth is like a Victorian Gothic noir with more than a hint of Lady Chatterley's Lover.

An adaptation of a Russian novel which is inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth.

The film is set in 19th century north east of England. Katherine (Florence Pugh) is a young teenager married off to Alexander (Paul Hilton.) He is much older than her, cold and maybe even sexually inadequate.

Alexander is the son of a wealthy mine owner, Boris (Christopher Fairbank) who is brutish and cruel.

Trapped in a cold, loveless marriage with only the black maid Anna as company. When both men are away, Katherine takes an interest in Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis) a mixed race young estate worker and they have a passionate affair.

When Boris finds out of the affair, Katherine does not shy away from what she has done. When Alexander returns, she flaunts Sebastian in front of him. Katherine becomes crueller as she desptaches both her father in law and husband.

However both Anna and Sebastian find out that Katherine is willing to get more darker to get what she wants.

Lady Macbeth features a mesmerising and beguiling performance from Florence Pugh. It is far away from these slushy chocolate box romantic period dramas. Katherine is steel edged and deadly.

Florence Pugh is magnificent in the lead role as a cool lady psychopath. And this is one of the best films I've seen this year. It's gripping from start to finish, there's just not even a little bit of fat in the production, every scene, every piece of dialogue is sparse but meaningful and the actors all carry it off with panache. The direction is flawless. i felt trapped in a Victorian drama with no escape. The camera work is wonderful, grainy and grim in the candle light of the mansion and you could feel the personality of the characters oozing into your pores from the close-ups. Its quite brilliant. Don't miss it.

Lady Macbeth fmovies. "Lady Macbeth" is like a Charlotte Bronte novel if the main heroine were a psychopath.

Florence Pugh plays a young woman saddled with a marriage and an estate that she did not choose for herself, who gets a taste of what it is to give in to her own passionate urges when she shacks up with a hunky stable boy and then decides that she will have a life with him no matter what or who she has to eliminate to make it happen.

"Lady Macbeth" sounds dark and juicy on paper, and it could have been a fabulously lurid spin on the Victorian Gothic template, but as treated here it's far too restrained to take advantage of the pulpy subject matter. The whole film, from the direction to the performances, really needed to go for it and not hold back. Instead, it's too quiet and slow by half, and though Pugh does an admirable job, one can't help but wonder how much more memorable a character she might have been able to create had she been allowed to really go off the rails. Maybe an odd and random thought, but the whole time I was watching this movie I was thinking what a younger Naomi Watts could have done with it.

Not a total misfire, but nowhere nearly as good as it could have been.

Grade: B

This film tells the story of a young woman who is sold into a loveless marriage with an older wealthy gentleman. She has a passionate affair with a servant of the house. The promise of a happier life eludes her, until she takes full control of the situation.

Initially I thought the film was really about Macbeth's wife, but I soon learn that it is not the case. The title comes from the similar ruthlessness and cold bloodedness that the leading woman and Lady Macbeth have. It is engaging to see how Katherine transforms from a timid woman into a sociopathic woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. The pacing is a little slow, with artistic shots lasting 10 or even 20 seconds but does not really help story telling. Overall, the story is good and Katherine's character is very interesting.

I was enthralled by this movie from start to finish. The cinematography and sound were excellent. The complete absence of a music soundtrack except for two notable atmospheric crescendos added to the overall oppressiveness of the story and the location. All of the performances were excellent and the lead was outstanding IMO. The story was in many ways familiar - being evocative of Bronte and Hardy - with its portrayal of Victorian country gentry and the brutality and sense of entitlement that sometimes occurred between the classes but the way the story unfolded frequently surprised me by not following through in the way one might have expected it to. I too would recommend a cinema viewing in order to get the full effect of the landscape and the oppressive silence of the house.