Part-funded by the BBC it may be, but Lady Macbeth is not the sort of costume drama you would find on BBC1 Sunday tea time. We first encounter Katherine (Florence Pugh) on her wedding day to the mean and sexually hung-up Alexander (Paul Hilton), and your sympathy will initially be with the young woman forced to share a remote and cold house with her uncaring husband and his cruel father, Boris (Christopher Fairbank). However, Katherine soon shows herself to be an even more evil presence as she leaves a string of bodies in her wake in the pursuit of servant Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis), with whom she is having a torrid affair.
Director, William Oldroyd brilliantly creates an austere world. With the help of his sound department, you can hear every rustle of Katherine’s dress and every creak of the floorboards as she rattles around the large house. But, for all its technical excellence, I struggled with the story. The first third, designed to show Katherine’s boredom when she is left in the house by Alexander and Boris, was a little dull. Although, it gets more interesting as Katherine’s true colours come to light, I never once believed that she was in love with Sebastian, or that she would not betray him the first chance she had.
The film, and Pugh’s performance have been getting heaps of critical praise, but I can’t totally go along with that. As good as she is, Fairbank steals every scene he has with her. I would say that there are flashes of brilliance, and I think there will be better to come from Pugh and Oldroyd.
Rating: 6 out of 10