Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” is slick and sumptuous

By N.B.

DAPHNE DU MAURIER’S gothic bestseller, “Rebecca”, tells the story of an innocent young woman who meets a wealthy widower in Monte Carlo. After a whirlwind romance, he whisks her back to his estate in Cornwall, but she soon gets the feeling that she will never be able to match the legendary beauty and sophistication of his late wife, the titular Rebecca. That plot is currently being mirrored by a new adaptation of the novel, directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Lily James and Armie Hammer, released on Netflix on October 21st. The last big-screen version was released in 1940, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starred Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier. Can anyone love Mr Wheatley’s film, or is it doomed to be overshadowed by its revered predecessor?

Both begin with the same much-quoted opening line—“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”—as a camera glides through the overgrown grounds of a stately home. Both then jump back to the Riviera, but this is where the new “Rebecca” shows off what distinguishes it from the old one: golden sunshine, colourful costumes and the lavish production values shared by “Ratched”, “Hollywood” and all the other Netflix films and programmes set in the mid-20th century.