LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER

Cert 15, 126 mins

Streaming from December 2 exclusively on Netflix. Starring: Emma Corrin, Jack O’Connell, Matthew Duckett, Joely Richardson.

Clifford Chatterley (Matthew Duckett) returns from the Great War to his wife Constance (Emma Corrin) a broken man – physically and psychologically.

They retire peacefully to his family estate where staff including Clifford’s nurse Mrs Barton (Joely Richardson) aid the lady of the manor in her daily duties. Clifford desires an heir to continue the bloodline but injuries sustained in battle prevent him from fulfilling this marital task. Consequently, he gives Constance his blessing to fall discreetly pregnant by another man on the strict “understanding” that he doesn’t know the donor’s identity.

At first, Constance rejects her husband’s indecent proposal but as she becomes increasingly starved of physical affection, her ladyship’s eye falls upon the estate’s sensitive and thoughtful gamekeeper Oliver Mellors (O’Connell). They spark a passionate and intense affair that threatens to tear apart the Chatterleys’ strained marriage and scandalise the nearby village.

Adapted for the screen by David Magee from DH Lawrence’s controversial novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a more contemplative rendering of the lust-fuelled period drama. Corrin and O’Connell still shed their inhibitions as forbidden sweethearts, including full frontal nudity for both actors in a beautifully lit frolic through a rain-lashed meadow.

However, the raw and animalistic eroticism of Lawrence’s text has been markedly diluted, softening both characters to unearth moments of tenderness and melancholy to punctuate the carnal clamouring.

Director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and French cinematographer Benoit Delhomme reduce the heat further with a cooling, silvery blue palette. (DS)

Rating: ***