BLITHE SPIRIT
Noël Coward update: not bad, not great, just medium.
OUT 15 JANUARY CINEMAS, SKY CINEMA
In 2020, Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca served a Downton-ised twist on a ’40s classic about a man more fixated on his late wife than his living one. After a delayed release, Downton director Edward Hall’s Noël Coward update is saddled with similar flaws. Lacking the spritz of David Lean’s 1945 film treatment, Hall’s well-dressed but wobbly romp struggles for footing between its source material’s defining frivolity and its own fresh twists.
At least the cast are on form. Fellow Downton alum Dan Stevens maxes the hapless smarm as Charles Condomine, a creatively and sexually blocked writer more interested in his late wife/muse, Elvira (a nicely spiky Leslie Mann), than his second wife, Ruth (standout Isla Fisher). Either way, Elvira cannot be avoided when her mischievously disruptive presence is roused during a séance conducted by Judi Dench’s faux-spiritualist Madame Arcati.
Hit-miss comic larks ensue, wedded to hit-miss plot variations. Fisher has fun with Ruth’s druggy episode; some would-be zingers fly wide, however, and Arcati’s backstory seems crowbarred in to appease Dench stans.
Meanwhile, screenwriter Piers Ashworth’s potentially fertile narrative innovations – echoing Glenn Close hit The Wife - are neither sufficiently developed nor properly integrated into the original’s pitch. The result is a film that shares Charles’ issues: even if it has more fun with its fleeting pleasures, it rarely seems fully committed to its purpose.