Review of the movie "rebecca”

In a season when rain is a very common occurrence, romance movies are weather demand, especially when it has been raining for three days straight. But for a suspense lover like me romances are the worst option to pick as it is fairly predictable. In the middle of such dilemma I found “ Rebecca”, the black-and-white portrayal of Daphne du Maurier’s novel of the same name. I watched the movie and let me tell you, I did not regret a single minute I spent on watching this movie.

“ Rebecca” is a romantic thriller or as some might say, classic romance film that takes place in 1940’s Monte Carlo. It was the first American movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock and the first well-received film for both the movie’s main stars- Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.

The movie is a gothic tale pictured in black-and-white that tells the story of a young, naïve girl (Joan Fontaine) who meets the love of her life, a widowed man named Maximilian de Winters (Laurence Olivier) while being in Monte Carlo as the “ paid companion” of a rich woman named Edith van Hopper. Two weeks later she gets married to him, but that’s when all the questions start to unravel. Who is Rebecca? Why is her memory spread everywhere? What is their housekeeper who happens to be the maid of Rebecca hiding? What is her husband hiding? What did the strange man on the old cottage mean? Does Maxim really love her? Who are all these strange men? She must find answer to all the questions and save her husband at the same time when the story takes an unexpected turn.

The life force of a movie is its plot and for movies adapted from novels or books it is how well the original story has been brought to life in which sector “ Rebecca” did a marvelous job. The director of the movie did an excellent job of fully capturing the gist of the novel it was based on. What’s more interesting is that the director managed to add more details and keep the film relevant even after changing one major twist of the story because of Hollywood production code. While most of the movie adaption of a well-received book turns out to be like the mere peak of the Alps or a twisted disappointment (remember Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? I do too. It has been thirteen years and the fans are still pissed about that one Dumbledore line.), “ Rebecca” turned out to be one of the best movie adaptions of a book of all time. Most adaptions have the problem of relying too much on the original book or not at all disappointing one part of the audience or the other, but this movie balanced the scale perfectly satisfying both the novel fans and the movie fans which, dare I say, is a rare accomplishment.