Review: Lady Macbeth
Every so often, you’ll get a film that flies just low enough under the radar that it passes through public consciousness and sadly be forgotten about save for cinephiles and publications. 2017’s Lady Macbeth is one of those film, in a year filled with strong performances and darker turns with the likes of Logan and The Last Jedi taking two respected franchises into unknown territories, it’s a damn shame that Lady Macbeth has been forgotten considering its one of the darkest films of the year with one of the best lead performances to go along with it.
Set in rural England, 1865; the film opens with a young woman named Katherine being married to Alexander Lester, a man twice his age, having been sold to him along with some land. Katherine and Alexander live together in Alexander’s father Boris’ house through Alexander refuses to touch Katherine or give her any affection at all. When Alexander and Boris are both called away on business and Katherine is allowed freedom for the first time in her marriage, she comes across a group of stable-boys and finds herself inexplicably attracted to one of them called Sebastian, despite him being a dirty, feral beast of a man. Before long she finds herself in an affair with Sebastian and feels happiness for the first time in too long, but happiness is not to last, with both Alexander and Boris to comeback at any moment, Katherine starts planning how to stay with Sebastian, and ends up taking a much darker path than she first realised.
Despite the title this has nothing to do with Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, only sharing the title thematically, what starts as an affair between the proper Lady and the rugged stable-boy evolves into a cold, emotionally abusive and murderous relationship, the places Katherine goes aren’t particularly unique, but it’s her reaction to it all and her relationship with Sebastian that make it stand out for just how dark it gets.
There is a slight problem with the film’s three acts being so clearly defined with a central enemy in each one, it just leaves very little room for them to grow, but since the focus in on Katherine I can understand why they would take that route, plus while the first two enemies are just big enough assholes to questionably deserve their treatment, the third one was completely innocent of everything except being in the way.
Acting was good, a lot of the characters were overshadowed for Florence Pugh’s turn as Katherine but they made their mark just the same, Alexander was a vile, heartless man with not a damn care for his wife’s well-being, emotionally or otherwise, preferring to masturbate to her back rather than touch her or even have her look at him. His father Boris was just as bad, abusive, judgemental and uncaring to the point where he blamed Katherine for his lack of a grandson, the two of them didn’t have much characterisation past being absolute assholes but they provide a quick way to sympathise with Katherine which makes her turn all the harsher to take.
Sebastian was an interesting one, what started out as a fairly simple working-class farmhand, enticing Katherine with his animalistic and brutal sexuality turned into a much more depressing and ultimately sympathetic performance, Sebastian is definitely a victim in this film, in fact I’d go so far as to say this is one of the best portrayals of emotional abuse since Tangled with Katherine pushing Sebastian into situations he doesn’t want to be in then saying she did it all for him. It’s a great twist to the clichéd ‘Proper woman falls for a man’s man’ routine and the switch in places allows both Sebastian and Katherine more chance to grow as characters.
Truthfully though, this whole film is taken hostage by Florence Pugh and she refuses to let it go, with only her second theatrical role she’s already showing herself to be a talent to watch. While Katherine initially takes the role of the forgotten housewife she quickly proves herself more than that, even before the affair she has a fire in her waiting to be unleashed and Sebastian gives her the very reason to let it out. But what makes Katherine such an interesting character is how cold she is, even when committing her atrocities she shows little emotion and it makes the scenes where she does emote harder to define as genuine or more trickery to get what she wants, Pugh finds a perfect balance to the character between victim and villain, never going too far to one or the other to clearly define who Katherine is. She is the Lady Macbeth of the film’s title because she is the one driving the murderous plot forward with Sebastian as her Macbeth, the cruel way she can twist the narrative to suit her own plans and her complete corruption, both of herself and of Sebastian, make her a truly fascinating character to watch and sets the stage for Pugh to break out in a big way.
The film is the feature debut for William Oldroyd and like Pugh he’s setting himself up for a strong career, from a production point the period piece is well-worn, literally with the big, cumbersome dresses choking Katherine and reminding her that she’s property now but also with the attitudes of the time, both Boris and Alexander are sexist, rude and ignorant such is the time, and even Sebastian is talked down to by a noble black woman (in a time when racism and slavery were surely rife but don’t quote me on that) because he’s a farmhand that speaks out of turn. It’s only Katherine that bucks the trend by thinking, speaking and even acting on her own behalf but obviously that doesn’t go the way you might think. It’s not a film that’s empowering or critical of women because that’s not the point, Katherine fall from grace is coloured with so many shades of grey that to just pigeonhole her as good or evil takes away from the purpose of her character.
Where Oldroyd shines is in how effortlessly he manages to build tension, there’s very little in the way of a score with many scenes playing out with just diegetic sound playing and (what I believe to be) natural light. This complete lack of thrills, of style, of everything but the bare essentials really creeps into the film and leaves you uneasy about just how unconcerned the film is with its darker elements, particularly in the final act with what Katherine does to protect her relationship with Sebastian. Oldroyd does let some sparks of warmth through the hard, Victorian exterior in regards to the happiness that Katherine and Sebastian share but as soon as blood is on both their hands it’s a tale of regret, guilt and betrayal that leaves you feeling hollow by the end of it.
Lady Macbeth might not be for everyone but it’s definitely worth a viewing, rarely do we get films so morally confusing and rich in character subversion that you’ll be thinking a hundred different things by the ending. While it might have been forgotten for Awards season, Pugh star-making turn as Katherine deserves to be remembered as one of 2017’s best and Oldroyd’s cold, uneasy direction puts him in a good position to be one of the more interesting directors around.
8/10