Whatever it cost my cousin in pain and suffering before he died I will return with full measure upon the woman that caused it." With its alluring dialogue and dark concept, My Cousin Rachel promises to be one of the year's more eccentric movies with a quiet take on the gothic mystery. In some cases, it has the capacity and potential to be successful in its endeavour to attract the viewer, but it mostly fails to appeal. This is due to a long, drawn-out plot that stretches its wafer-thin story to an extreme. In absolute, the film covers the basis of a thriving relationship between a man and his cousin's widow, which culminates in his infatuation with her and eventually trying to woe her. This, in essence, is the crux of the story. There are supporting roles involved, but they predominantly fall to the wayside of a very central double-led cast.
I would, without hesitation, put Rachel Weisz at the centre of my praise. Her eccentric performance and sinister manner play brilliantly with the already-gothic atmosphere. She steals ever scene with her melancholy glances and surprisingly subtle attitude. Her characters is a fascinating one, but without Weisz, it wouldn't have been distinctive enough to attract my attention. Unfortunately, Claifin, whilst charming in his own way, can't match her. Perhaps it may have something to do with his character's personality traits, but his overall demeanour is off-putting and unattractive. Also possibly ruined by character flaws, he always seems to be too preoccupied with the present rather than looking ahead, and that is ultimately his downfall in the end. There were some shocking moments in the film. The foreshadowing of the cliff fall was a great addition to the story, and setup the final conclusion brilliantly as Rachel fell to her death. The conclusion also settled Philip's realisation that everything that Rachel did was purely innocent and that he was just pushing her too much. The story itself had substance and a neat ending, but it was overstretched in terms of how long set pieces were prepared and capitalised. Certainly, the diversion involving Wellington was frustrating. And the payoff definitely wasn't enough to account for the time it took to get there. I think, personally, the lack of enjoyment was a side-effect of the tragic nature of the story and the darker elements of love and its consequences. Of the supporting cast, Iain Glen and Holliday Grainger were both great, but their characters felt sincerely lacking in importance. Whilst enough time was spent on Rachel and Philip, Louise and Nick Kendall received barely any character development apart from when necessary to feed Philip's concurrent events. The main problem was that they appeared intermittently to support the story rather be a part of it. Despite some convincing direction from Roger Michell, with some landscape shots to die for, the structure of the film was incredibly choppy and disrespectful to the story. Especially at the beginning of the film, the story seemed to rapidly transfer between scenes just to lay the groundworks for the rest of the film. This consequently gave the film an unsatisfactory tempo where characters seem to breeze through life with only minor interactions and conversations to reassert their personalities. One scene involving Philip's mourning of his cousin was so short, that I was desperate for it to take a breather and begin contemplation. The greatest movies are the ones that pause and consider the past to better the future. A mixed bag, with a stunning performance from Rachel Weisz balancing out a sloppy plot development and disregarded characters. For those who enjoy a surreal love story, in which nothing is as it seems, this could be your kind of movie, but don't expect too much investment in their relationship. The story around Philip believing Rachel to be the cause of his cousin's death is also quickly sidelined when he first meets her. This is perhaps a little unexplained, seeing as how convinced he was of her hand in the death, but that's one flaw of many in an unsatisfactory portrayal of the trials of love. 6/10
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