My Cousin Rachel (2017)

The trouble with Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel, whether this very beautifully photographed and finely acted new version, the 1952 Olivia de Havilland version, or any version at all is that viewers are supposed to question the motivations of a foreign woman and ask themselves whether she is a loose opportunist, while extending sympathy towards an immature, impestuous privacy invader, domestic abuser and effective murderer.

★★★☆☆

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My Cousin Rachel (1952)

A sumptuous adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's gothic romance, but Phillip, who suspects his 'cousin' Rachel conspired first against his late Uncle Ambrose and now against him for the family's Cornwall estate, is portrayed by Richard Burton as such a dunderhead - insipid, delusional, violent, naive, and let's face it, a likely xenophobe - that from the word go modern viewers' sympathies rest not with him but with the possibly conniving, possibly murderous Rachel.

★★★☆☆

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