Rebecca redo is second best
AN AUSSIE BLACK COMEDY-DRAMA IS LEIGH PAATSCH’S PICK OF TWO REMAKES
REBECCA (M)
Director: Ben Wheatley (Free Fire)
Starring: Lily James, Armie Hammer, Kristin Scott Thomas
Rating:
A second try worth it … if it’s your first time
Surprisingly, the only Best Picture Oscar that landed Alfred Hitchcock’s way was for his classic 1940 adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier novel Rebecca.
As we know, remaking any Hitchcock movie is a pointless exercise. Therefore it is difficult to recommend this attractively mounted new rendition of Rebecca to anyone who has seen the original. You’ll find yourself hopelessly distracted by unnecessarily drab changes and exasperated by unintentionally pale repetitions.
However, if you’re coming it with a fresh set of eyes and a blank memory, you will be relatively delighted and diverted by what stands as quite a decent period romantic thriller.
You won’t be meeting the title character, by the way, but you will be sensing her presence for much of the running time here. She is the late wife of dapper 1930s gent Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), the wealthy owner of a sprawling British seaside estate.
You won’t be learning the first name of Maxim’s new missus, by the way, but you will be experiencing his life of privilege, entitlement and increasingly mercurial mood swings through her eyes.
As played by a well-cast
Lily James, the new Mrs de Winter has her work cut out getting to know her enigmatic spouse, and not just because he had a ring on her finger within a week of their chance meeting in Monte Carlo. So it would be wise to keep an eye on Maxim’s haughty head housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), who has her own reasons for not issuing a warm welcome to the new lady of the house.
Rebecca is now streaming on Netflix
RAMS (PG)
Director: Jeremy Sims (Last Cab To Darwin)
Starring: Sam Neill, Michael Caton, Miranda Richardson, Wayne Blair, Asher Keddie
Rating:
Nothing more to say, but so much more to do
While Rams may indeed be a very different kind of Australian movie, it is also a very Australian movie.
The significance of this statement becomes apparent when you unpick the highly unusual pedigree of Rams.
This is a relatively faithful remake of an astonishing (and utterly engrossing) Icelandic production that made quite a ripple on both the festival and arthouse cinema circuits in the middle of last decade.
The story unfolds inside a close-knit sheep-farming community in Western Australia.
It is here we are introduced to two brothers living on adjacent properties, just t outside the town of
Mount Barker. One goes by the name of
Colin (Sam Neill). The other is Les (Michael Caton).
The sibling’s houses stand less than 20m apart. If you were to ask any of the Mount Barker locals about Colin and Les, they would soon inform you that the pair have not spoken in more than 20 years.
Intriguingly, Rams never really fully clues us in about what drove the brothers apart. Instead, subtly and skilfully, the movie steers both men on differing paths through the same personal crisis. How each stubborn mule of a man chooses to react to that crisis may end up being of lasting importance to the other.
Without going into too fine detail about the plot, Colin and Les are famed in the region as the best breeders of a revered line of sheep. Then comes an unprecedented disease outbreak, triggering a government decree that every woolly beast in the region must be put down.
Everything that Colin, Les and the wider community have worked for their entire lives is gone – just like that.
Therefore the same choice must be made by one and all: start over, or be rolled over.
Colin makes quite a radical decision about what comes next. As for Les, who is fighting a losing battle with the bottle, he will have to dry out before he can work out his game plan.
Like the original version, this take on Rams is a difficult movie to classify. At times, it is as charming a (blackish) comedy as they come. At others, it is a strikingly wellobserved drama.
The minimalist performances of Neill and Caton convey much more than most viewers will expect, particularly as their characters are the embodiment of “men of few words”.
Further enhancing the unlikely appeal of Rams is a wonderful collection of support players led by Wayne Blair, Asher Keddie and British import Miranda Richardson.