My Cousin Rachel (Roger Michell, 2017)

The second big-screen adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's mystery-romance novel, My Cousin Rachel is told from the perspective of Philip, an orphaned young man, now heir to the wealth of his deceased cousin, beset with doubts about the manner of his cousin's passing. The doubts are focused on his beguiling widow, the Rachel of the title, and Philip is soon inexorably smitten with her. The story then proceeds to play out pretty much to a gothic formula, and accordingly even the end doesn't come as much of a surprise, but the dialogue is sharp and the interplay between Sam Claflin as the naïf and Rachel Weisz as the possibly deceitful widow is a delicately poised dance.

6/10