My Cousin Rachel (2017)
My Cousin Rachel is beautifully filmed and led by a mesmerising Weisz, but otherwise it's insufferably boring and poorly plotted.
What is My Cousin Rachel about?
A young Englishman plots revenge against his late cousin's mysterious, beautiful wife, believing her responsible for his death. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms. (from IMDB)
My review of My Cousin Rachel
Visually, it's stunning. The cinematography is excellent, the scenes well crafted, and the setting and landscapes magnificent. The direction is also very good, and the scenes are atmospheric.
But the script is poorly written. The film starts off extremely rushed, and we're flung into the story without nuanced development. The scenes are also discontinuous, and I personally think they could've been either rearranged or replaced with alternative sequences and the plot would've been tighter - better - for it. As it is, they feel like missed opportunities. It doesn't help that the pacing is odd, too.
I was so bored. The story is just dull. Because the scenes aren't taken to their full potential and the writing isn't brilliant, the whole story drags and every scene is slow.
The story doesn't leave an impact. I was never certain what the theme was, or who I was supposed to be rooting for, or what I should have been thinking. It's not powerful enough; it dragged me along and showed me characters and incidents but I was never sure how I should react.
Rachel Weisz and Sam Clafin in My Cousin Rachel | from IMDB
Sam Clafin's performance is good, but overwrought. He doesn't make an impression. Rachel Weisz, on the other hand, is intoxicating. She's ethereal, terrifying, seductive, and captivating. Her acting is spellbinding. She carries what she can of the boring story and almost makes the film worth watching.
But Weisz and Clafin have no chemistry. There's zero spark between them. I think this definitely contributes to the overall impression of their relationship, and took a lot away from it. I also don't like how little is seen of the progression of their characters' relationship; Rachel arrives, Philip sees her, and he's utterly charmed by her. There's no solid development to their romance. I wish we could've seen him slowly falling under her spell, but the story misses that.
