Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Review of 'My Cousin Rachel'

Period drama, nicely made with lots of detail that looks well researched. I couldn't tell exactly when it was supposed to be set, which bothered me. There was a Christmas tree in one scene, which puts it some time after 1840, but there don't seem to be any railways - everyone travels by coach. So I guess that makes it the 1840s...?

Relatively faithful to the book, from what I can understand, though I am not sure how ambiguous the ending is in that - here I was still left wondering whether Rachel was, or was not, a murderer who is trying to poison the central male character. Very dark, but good. I must read the book.

Watched at the Vue in Stroud, where the air conditioning was one of the main benefits.

1 comment:

SteveE said...

I understand from one who has read the book and seen the movie, that the movie makes Rachel's motivation more ambiguous. For me, the ambiguity is what made it interesting. Good piece in The Guardian by Julie Myserson, highlighting 'the rank vixen smell'... https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/17/rereading-my-cousin-rachel-daphne-du-maurier?CMP=share_btn_link