Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito were twins. One inherited all the noble qualities, and the other... didn't. The twins in "The Thirteenth Tale" are rather less amusing. Madeleine Power is brilliant as the nine-year-old girls Emmeline and Adeline (Ella-Rose Wood skilfully doubles). One of these twins (under that cascade of gorgeous red hair) has the makings of a sociopath. You wouldn't want to be governess to this difficult duo, but Hester Barrow (Alexandra Roach) comes from the school of no-nonsense firmness. Also from a school of too clever by half rationality, leading to this "scientific" procedure - which you just know will not end well.
It's English Gothic. There's a whiff, nay, a stench of corruption within the tainted aristocratic blood, yea, in the befouled DNA. So mental instability is always going to be on the menu. The stolid servants (Janet Amsden as The Missus and Robert Pugh as John The Dig) ought to be secure enough - unless they get drawn into the cesspool.
If you want to enjoy this film, you'll need to accept the conventions. Some elements of the story are super-credible, other elements look cliched or artificially engineered. Is dying author Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave) trying to absolve some collective guilt by "confessing" to her chosen biographer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman)? Lea doesn't come across as tough enough to be a professional biographer. But maybe it's Lea's vulnerability that keeps Winter talking, spilling the beans and spilling them in the right order for her fantastical narrative to keep us watching. A movie like this draws you in with its well made beginning; but whether you'll say at the end, "This was time well spent" is not specified on the manufacturer's warranty card.
It's English Gothic. There's a whiff, nay, a stench of corruption within the tainted aristocratic blood, yea, in the befouled DNA. So mental instability is always going to be on the menu. The stolid servants (Janet Amsden as The Missus and Robert Pugh as John The Dig) ought to be secure enough - unless they get drawn into the cesspool.
If you want to enjoy this film, you'll need to accept the conventions. Some elements of the story are super-credible, other elements look cliched or artificially engineered. Is dying author Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave) trying to absolve some collective guilt by "confessing" to her chosen biographer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman)? Lea doesn't come across as tough enough to be a professional biographer. But maybe it's Lea's vulnerability that keeps Winter talking, spilling the beans and spilling them in the right order for her fantastical narrative to keep us watching. A movie like this draws you in with its well made beginning; but whether you'll say at the end, "This was time well spent" is not specified on the manufacturer's warranty card.