My Cousin Rachel

Review by Pamela Zoslov

“Alive with all the impassioned suspense, dramatic fervor and excitement of the best seller by Daphne du Maurier, author of Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel comes to the screen with the only star in the world who could play it, Olivia de Havilland!” So intones the trailer for the 1952 movie, also starring Richard Burton in his Hollywood debut. “Was she woman or witch? Madonna or murderess?”

Though that movie received some good reviews and an Oscar nomination for Burton, du Maurier was unhappy with the adaptation of her 1951 novel. She particularly disliked de Havilland's looks and hairstyle, which she thought resembled the dowdy Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson. Du Maurier might have found the darkly pretty Rachel Weisz, who plays Rachel in Roger Michell's new film adaptation, closer to the mark. (By the way, did you know Olivia de Havilland is still alive, and 100 years old?)

Hyde Park on Hudson

By Pamela Zoslov

After Steven Spielberg’s worshipful LINCOLN, it should be refreshing to see a presidential biopic that doesn’t overlook its subject’s flaws. HYDE PARK ON HUDSON takes an unflinching view of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, showing his withered legs, his need to be carried bodily by strong attendants, and the frustration beneath his familiar bonhomie over his handicap. It also highlights his marital infidelity. Who’d have thought a film about presidential philandering would focus on the discreet affairs of the crippled FDR rather than the brazen, compulsive womanizing of John F. Kennedy?

As refreshing as this honesty is, it’s uncomfortable watching the 32nd president, impersonated here by Bill Murray, jiggling in his shiny convertible as he receives a hand job from his fifth cousin, Daisy (Laura Linney). That scene is bookended by a later one in which Daisy, at the behest of her presidential lover, smears mustard on a hot dog held by England's King George VI (Samuel West), a presumably unintended hint of eroticism that underscores her role as FDR's concubine.