A masterclass from Weisz
stories became fodder for Hitchcock’s The Birds and the romantic horror Don’t Look Now.
The titular cousin is played by Rachel Weisz, who cannot put a foot wrong whether she’s playing literary heroines as in The Constant Gardener (another classic novel, another topnotch film adaptation, another brilliantly ambiguously character) or starring in schlocky blockbusters like The Mummy – hey, every Brit has to break into Hollywood somehow, and Weisz chose to break through a sarcophagus.
As the ageless widow with preternaturally feminist views, whose own version of events wrong-foots Philip’s initial accusations, Weisz is so convincing the audience is equally beguiled. She is typically understated yet utterly committed with every raise of an eyebrow and slight smile.
Claflin has a patchier track record, but I have put the distasteful Me Before You behind me, after he won me round in Their Finest. Yet as fine as Claflin’s performance is, with solid support from Iain Glen and the inscrutable Holliday Grainger (The Borgias, plus every other period piece ever), this movie belongs to Weisz and her ability to confuse us as much as she does our protagonist.
It is also very smartly written and directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Enduring Love) who rattles through each scene with admirable pace and nary a snippet of unnecessary exposition. Set in Cornwall – a corner of England almost perpetually bathed in sunshine and beauty, it would seem – the cinematography is stunning and the setting bucolic.
But while My Cousin Rachel does everything right, it can’t quite appease our modern-day demand for novelty and provocation. The preoccupations of the romantic novel feel familiar, even if in this case its cinematic execution does it proud. – Sarah Watt