My Cousin Rachel

Daphne DuMaurier's novels have formed the basis for a couple of significant films - in particular, Hitchcock's "Rebecca" and "The Birds" plus Nic Roeg's "Don't Look Now". Her other writing has largely gone under-explored - "My Cousin Rachel" being another in the realm of stories of old-style Cornwall with a mystery at the heart of it, and a reasonable amount of intrigue. In this case, the intrigue revolves around Sam Claflin as a young, somewhat irresponsible heir to an estate, and Rachel Weitz as the titular cousin who was the wife to his benefactor, and who may or may not have contributed to his death. His investigation of her is inevitably complicated by also lusting after her, and the twists and turns as this finds its way to resolution mean we're never quite sure how to view everyone.

Claflin is far better suited to this role than his clunky turn in "Their Finest" - he's far better suited to slight cluelessness than the snotty know-it-all he played in that film - and Weitz keeps things right on the edge of opportunist gold-digger or simply a woman trying to keep her independance. Roger Michell shoots with a classy eye, and the supporting cast have a nice number of british cinema ringers (Ian Glen and Simon Russell-Beale in particular). If this isn't up to the level of DuMaurier's best, it's still a reasonably intriguing film.