Film adaptations of novels can be weighed down by their literary origins, but not this one. Thanks to Jane Campion's skills as a writer-director, this is cinema of the highest calibre.
A tale of dangerous repression and emotional manipulation, the tension in the telling is almost tangible. Campion achieves this without resorting to melodrama, but by sheer intensity. The quartet of leading actors is unbeatable, with revelatory performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst. They are well matched by Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee, in less rangy but nevertheless demanding roles.
Campion has, as ever, brought the best out of her collaborators, notably cinemtographer Ari Wegner and editor Peter Sciberras. The magnificant score, a classic if ever there was one, is by Jonny Greenwood.
A tale of dangerous repression and emotional manipulation, the tension in the telling is almost tangible. Campion achieves this without resorting to melodrama, but by sheer intensity. The quartet of leading actors is unbeatable, with revelatory performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst. They are well matched by Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee, in less rangy but nevertheless demanding roles.
Campion has, as ever, brought the best out of her collaborators, notably cinemtographer Ari Wegner and editor Peter Sciberras. The magnificant score, a classic if ever there was one, is by Jonny Greenwood.