In many ways “Lady Macbeth” is remarkable for what it isn’t. It isn’t a staid period drama. It isn’t romantic. It isn’t predictable. And it certainly isn’t comfortable. It takes a while to grasp just how far off the safe and familiar path the film is going to wander, and when the realization hits, it’s with a sickening thud.
Set in an era when English marriage was wholly a business proposition, “Lady Macbeth” places its female lead in an unenviable position and then relentlessly ratchets up the tension and despair. Sympathy for the unhappy new bride starts out so strong that it lingers long after her misery has curdled into the kind of evil that merits the name of Shakespeare’s most infamous villainess.
Katherine (Florence Pugh) is married off to a cold brute and sent to live at an estate set in a landscape as desolate and wild as Brontë’s moors. There, Katherine lives in isolation with little more to keep her company than no-nonsense house servant Anna (Naomi Ackie), who harshly rakes the tangles from her hair and offers little comfort. She is instructed repeatedly to “keep to the house,” while her dictatorial old father-in-law makes it abundantly clear that she was “purchased” for little more than use of her womb — a misfortune, as her husband will only engage in humiliating sexual acts that render impregnation an impossibility.
When business matters draw her vile husband and father-in-law away from the estate, Katherine quickly and with great abandon begins a torrid affair with a half-feral groundskeeper, Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis). They paw at each other with such abandon that Anna doesn’t even have to try to figure out what is going on in their masters’ absence.
It’s the sort of dalliance that, given the time and place, could never have a happily-ever-after ending, which Katherine doesn’t accept. Instead, her love gives birth to a ruthless sense of self-preservation. She does not balk at any sin that promises to extend her agency, even when it calls for her to turn murderess.
The power of “Lady Macbeth” is that it encourages the viewer to perform a certain moral calculus as Katherine becomes increasingly ruthless. She is so woefully mistreated that her vengeance at first seems a sort of justice. But her violence spreads beyond her tormentors, staining all within her orbit. It builds to a scene of violence so heartless it’s sickening to endure – somehow even more so for its lack of graphic detail.
Shot with unsparing coldness, “Lady Macbeth” is a disturbing character study and dark moral meditation. And like the blood on its namesake’s hands, it’s not easily washed out.
Barbara VanDenburgh, USA TODAY Network
★★★
Roadside Attractions presents a film directed by William Oldroyd and written by Alice Birch. Rated R (for some disturbing violence, strong sexuality/nudity, and language). Running time: 89 minutes. Opens Friday at Landmark Century Centre, AMC River East and Century 12 in Evanston.
