Book Adaptations: Rebecca (2020) Film Review

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is one of my favourite books of all time! It’s eerie and tense, mysterious, and it’s one of those books where genuinely every detail and scene matters. So, I was really excited that there was a new (ish) Rebecca film adaptation!

I must’ve been living under a rock or something because I hadn’t even heard of this movie, even though it came out over 5 years ago.

The premise

“A young newlywed arrives at her husband’s imposing family estate on a windswept English coast and finds herself battling the shadow of his first wife, Rebecca, whose legacy lives on in the house long after her death.”

From IMDB.

My spoiler-free review of Rebecca (2020) film

Visually, the film is stunning. The house is perfect, the costume design is beautiful, and Kristin Scott Thomas being cast as Ms Danvers was spot on! She comes across cold and menacing, exactly how old Danny did in the book.

However, she’s the only character I feel that way about, especially when it comes to our heroine. First of all, for a character that is described as being quite plain, Lily James is far too beautiful. In the 2020 film adaptation, the narrator comes across as too confident and so she never feels like someone who’s in completely over their head. The narrator in the book is timid and anxious, even around Maxim. That power dynamic is absolutely essential to how the plot plays out.

In the film, there’s no awkwardness or tension between the newlyweds. They seem passionate and happy together, especially in Monte Carlo, which was not the impression I got from the book, and this completely flattens the tension.

Armie Hammer as Maxim is also extremely dull. There’s nothing that makes you want to peel back his layers and discover the secrets that he is clearly keeping, as you do in the book. There’s really no reason for the viewer to feel so unsettled as a reader would.

This lack of tension and the over confidence of the narrator means that scenes that should be uncomfortable and unbearable aren’t. There’s no atmosphere, eeriness. Even in the final act, everything feels a bit too clean and happy. It’s watchable (kind of), but it doesn’t come anywhere near to what makes the book so riveting and memorable.

My partner hadn’t read the novel, and he thought the Netflix film was okay. However, if you have read the novel, the only way to watch this is if you imagine it as a completely new story that is absolutely NOT adapted from such an incredible book.