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Crimson Peak (review)
I don't know if I have the ability to write lengthy reviews anymore.
Last Sunday, we went to see Crimson Peak, the new gothic romance from Guillermo del Toro. It was a mostly empty theatre.
Anyway. I liked it a lot.
It was beautifully-shot, and the sets and costumes were amazing (I covet Edith's brown velvet spencer thing, you guys. So much. Even with the ridiculous puff sleeves).
The plot was fairly simple, but I never felt that I was being talked down to. I felt very much in the moment and entertained by the characters, who were well-drawn and mysterious, obvious and subtle at turns.
It starts out more as a Masterpiece Theatre ensemble cast Historical Drama about the Plucky Young Woman and her Dreams--ok, except for the part where from the beginning, she was having visitations from ghosts warning her about this Crimson Peak thing.
So, Edith, the young woman in question, is a novelist and I basically ate up the whole Young Novelist Wanting to Be Published thing with a spoon and was almost disappointed when we moved away from discussing her novel (and the idea that ghosts are a metaphor for the past, which was what I think caught Julius Sir Thomas so quickly). She's bright, clever, personable, and with that touch of melancholy that a lost mother sort of gives. (ok, that's fatuous to say, and she was a Type, but she was also just entertaining in her own right)
Anyway. Edith meets (I don't think that first instance was orchestrated, though I think she was the Sharpes' target from the beginning, given her father's money) Sir Thomas Sharpe, whom she's already tagged as being a leach on the people who work his land. And there's something, a connection between them, almost immediately.
(to be fair, he is quite pretty, and he complimented her fiction--without having read it. he's quite good, Sophie would give him low marks for the disengagement of the Con, though)
Matters continue in fairly typical fashion. There's a party, a dance, we meet his sister who is intense and strange.
There's a fascinating conversation about butterflies (Edith) and moths (Lucille), and how the latter kills the former in jolly ol' England.
Anyway, there's the addition of a dull doctor-type as suitor, and he's terribly square-jawed and bluff, and probably someone's ideal of a hero? (um, he was a perfectly nice gentleman, just dull). He tries to match Edith's interests in ghosts, but sort of falls short because she really pays him little romantic attention.
Eventually, Edith's ol' Pa sends a Pinkerton detective to hunt down information (and wouldn't the internet have been helpful back then?), and uncovers something Scandalous (and it isn't that Thomas and Lucille are husband and wife rather than siblings). He kicks them out of Buffalo (really. Buffalo), and Thomas breaks Edith's wee heart before running away.
And then the next day he sends her a letter explaining that her father Doesn't Like him. And there's a murder. But it's an accident (I know the coroner's were shit back in those days, but for fuck's sake, there is no fucking way a single impact against a sink even from a standing position is going to result in the skull caving in in multiple places. People don't bounce).
Wedding bells! Edith is swept off her feet and carried into Allerdale Hall, the falling down pile of an ancestral home which the Sharpes inhabit. Also, there's a clay mine underneath and the house is sinking into it.
It was at this point that I was mentally making both Rebecca and Miss Fisher comparisons (the latter because of that one Christmas special set at the ski lodge on top of the abandoned mine).
There are more things that happen. There are ghosts with warnings, there are ghosts with clues, there are ghosts who struggle to keep Edith from making their mistakes and dying without warning. Lucille is always feeding Edith tea (and talking about their mother playing the piano, something Lucille does rather beautifully).
There's a lost baby and a dog which should have been dead.
And there's the growing sense that something is odd with Thomas and Edith's marriage, as they sleep next to each other, but have obviously not consummated it.
It's wonderfully stilted at times--Edith because she is new to things like marriage though she's been in charge of her father's household for years. And Thomas because a part of him seems to be striving to continue the Con, to allow himself to pretend that he loves her.
Edith can see ghosts, of course.
It was suspenseful, too. And not in the "let's paint the canvas red with jump scares and dismembered corpses" way. More in the "woman alone with a killer in the house, but the killer is really the sofa and not the man" way. Or something like that.
It relied on the conventions of the genre. If one hasn't seen Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? or something similar, the idea that Edith was Trapped wouldn't have been as terrifying.
Killing with kindness is still killing, after all (as is shoving someone down the stairs).
Trapped with the Sharpe siblings and the ghosts, Edith quickly unravels.
When she breaks, she convinces Thomas to take her to the village for the day, to get away from the Hall.
(and then she finds out that it's called Crimson Peak, at some point, hence all of the warnings now are horrifically clear)
They end up staying overnight in a dinky little room, where they consummate their marriage.
In some ways, I feel that was Thomas' turning point. That the part of him that was pretending to love Edith, the part of him that chose her from the pack of heiresses, the part of him that was drawn to the idea of ghosts and pasts and melancholy that she put into her story--
That part of him fell irrevocably in love. (he said love was pain and torture, but Edith wasn't pain and torture)
Thomas wanted the butterfly, for once, even if its life would be snuffed out too quickly.
It comes out later in the film that Thomas never slept with the other wives. (and if someone wants to bleat on about how it was a Pure Virgin Edith vs. Sex-Crazed Nympho Lucille, that person might want to think about that fact. His other wives' Purity never saved them. And Edith's lack of purity saved her.)
Lucille is frantic when they return, angry and terrifying - and I think it's because on some level, she knows she has already lost him to Edith.
Bad things happen. More ghosts. And then Dr. Square-Jaw Dull (I don't remember his name, tbqh) shows up and is pants.
Sidenote: Burn Gorman has a cameo in this as the detective, and his is INSANELY rigid in his portrayal (and I don't mean badly-acted, just the physicality of the character). He's quite lovely.
Right. So things come to a head, Lucille reveals that she's collected locks of hair from every one of her victims (including her mother, as the first is brunette, iirc).
Edith loses her shit and manages to fight back, Thomas betrays Lucille, yadda yadda.
And people (ok, only Edith) spend an inordinate amount of time walking in snow barefoot. My feet ached in sympathy.
Then Edith turned into Alice Kingsley and slew the Jabberwock (seriously, stick both shots up frame for fram and it's the same stance and over-hand swing, guys. Also, the pithy quip).
And the films ends somewhere around there. It's not a happy ending, but it's not an Everybody Dies ending. It's a good ending, at least for me.
Mostly because I expect that Edith went on to become a novelist and hunt for ghosts (to learn their stories) and possibly teamed up with the Pinkerton detective in the wild west. Or something. IDK. I just like the idea that she didn't turn into some dull society girl or pining widow or married to Dr. Dull. Because the last thing would be ugh.
So I really liked the movie, I thought it was well-done and entertaining, and I'b buy it. And maybe see it again in theatre.
I was also a huge fan of the part where the heroine did her own damned saving. Like, I wouldn't have minded if she'd been rescued by Dr. Dull, but I quite enjoyed the fact that he basically was a set-piece to her escaping and triumphing.
Basically, if you're a fan of gothic horror and of complicated women (because Lucille is certainly complicated, and I think Edith was, too), and of women being their own hero, and of lavishly-colored movies and ghosts... You might enjoy this one.
As for me, I'm fucking disappointed that the only fic I can find appears to be Hiddleston fucks fangirls self-inserts, incest, Edith/Dr. Dull or hilariously awful Edith/Thomas First Love-Making Session. There's one unfinished Edith/Thomas fic, but it seems to be heading the True and Pure Love of a Pure and Good Woman is His Only Salvation, which, no.
I want Edith goes ghost-hunting/writes/uses her money to travel the world type fic. Sigh. (Edith forming her own band of Charlie's Angels to hunt ghosts and solve mysteries would be hilarious)
ok, also, Emma Bishop + Edith Cushing (Sharpe) as bffs would be fun, too.
Last Sunday, we went to see Crimson Peak, the new gothic romance from Guillermo del Toro. It was a mostly empty theatre.
Anyway. I liked it a lot.
It was beautifully-shot, and the sets and costumes were amazing (I covet Edith's brown velvet spencer thing, you guys. So much. Even with the ridiculous puff sleeves).
The plot was fairly simple, but I never felt that I was being talked down to. I felt very much in the moment and entertained by the characters, who were well-drawn and mysterious, obvious and subtle at turns.
It starts out more as a Masterpiece Theatre ensemble cast Historical Drama about the Plucky Young Woman and her Dreams--ok, except for the part where from the beginning, she was having visitations from ghosts warning her about this Crimson Peak thing.
So, Edith, the young woman in question, is a novelist and I basically ate up the whole Young Novelist Wanting to Be Published thing with a spoon and was almost disappointed when we moved away from discussing her novel (and the idea that ghosts are a metaphor for the past, which was what I think caught Julius Sir Thomas so quickly). She's bright, clever, personable, and with that touch of melancholy that a lost mother sort of gives. (ok, that's fatuous to say, and she was a Type, but she was also just entertaining in her own right)
Anyway. Edith meets (I don't think that first instance was orchestrated, though I think she was the Sharpes' target from the beginning, given her father's money) Sir Thomas Sharpe, whom she's already tagged as being a leach on the people who work his land. And there's something, a connection between them, almost immediately.
(to be fair, he is quite pretty, and he complimented her fiction--without having read it. he's quite good, Sophie would give him low marks for the disengagement of the Con, though)
Matters continue in fairly typical fashion. There's a party, a dance, we meet his sister who is intense and strange.
There's a fascinating conversation about butterflies (Edith) and moths (Lucille), and how the latter kills the former in jolly ol' England.
Anyway, there's the addition of a dull doctor-type as suitor, and he's terribly square-jawed and bluff, and probably someone's ideal of a hero? (um, he was a perfectly nice gentleman, just dull). He tries to match Edith's interests in ghosts, but sort of falls short because she really pays him little romantic attention.
Eventually, Edith's ol' Pa sends a Pinkerton detective to hunt down information (and wouldn't the internet have been helpful back then?), and uncovers something Scandalous (and it isn't that Thomas and Lucille are husband and wife rather than siblings). He kicks them out of Buffalo (really. Buffalo), and Thomas breaks Edith's wee heart before running away.
And then the next day he sends her a letter explaining that her father Doesn't Like him. And there's a murder. But it's an accident (I know the coroner's were shit back in those days, but for fuck's sake, there is no fucking way a single impact against a sink even from a standing position is going to result in the skull caving in in multiple places. People don't bounce).
Wedding bells! Edith is swept off her feet and carried into Allerdale Hall, the falling down pile of an ancestral home which the Sharpes inhabit. Also, there's a clay mine underneath and the house is sinking into it.
It was at this point that I was mentally making both Rebecca and Miss Fisher comparisons (the latter because of that one Christmas special set at the ski lodge on top of the abandoned mine).
There are more things that happen. There are ghosts with warnings, there are ghosts with clues, there are ghosts who struggle to keep Edith from making their mistakes and dying without warning. Lucille is always feeding Edith tea (and talking about their mother playing the piano, something Lucille does rather beautifully).
There's a lost baby and a dog which should have been dead.
And there's the growing sense that something is odd with Thomas and Edith's marriage, as they sleep next to each other, but have obviously not consummated it.
It's wonderfully stilted at times--Edith because she is new to things like marriage though she's been in charge of her father's household for years. And Thomas because a part of him seems to be striving to continue the Con, to allow himself to pretend that he loves her.
Edith can see ghosts, of course.
It was suspenseful, too. And not in the "let's paint the canvas red with jump scares and dismembered corpses" way. More in the "woman alone with a killer in the house, but the killer is really the sofa and not the man" way. Or something like that.
It relied on the conventions of the genre. If one hasn't seen Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? or something similar, the idea that Edith was Trapped wouldn't have been as terrifying.
Killing with kindness is still killing, after all (as is shoving someone down the stairs).
Trapped with the Sharpe siblings and the ghosts, Edith quickly unravels.
When she breaks, she convinces Thomas to take her to the village for the day, to get away from the Hall.
(and then she finds out that it's called Crimson Peak, at some point, hence all of the warnings now are horrifically clear)
They end up staying overnight in a dinky little room, where they consummate their marriage.
In some ways, I feel that was Thomas' turning point. That the part of him that was pretending to love Edith, the part of him that chose her from the pack of heiresses, the part of him that was drawn to the idea of ghosts and pasts and melancholy that she put into her story--
That part of him fell irrevocably in love. (he said love was pain and torture, but Edith wasn't pain and torture)
Thomas wanted the butterfly, for once, even if its life would be snuffed out too quickly.
It comes out later in the film that Thomas never slept with the other wives. (and if someone wants to bleat on about how it was a Pure Virgin Edith vs. Sex-Crazed Nympho Lucille, that person might want to think about that fact. His other wives' Purity never saved them. And Edith's lack of purity saved her.)
Lucille is frantic when they return, angry and terrifying - and I think it's because on some level, she knows she has already lost him to Edith.
Bad things happen. More ghosts. And then Dr. Square-Jaw Dull (I don't remember his name, tbqh) shows up and is pants.
Sidenote: Burn Gorman has a cameo in this as the detective, and his is INSANELY rigid in his portrayal (and I don't mean badly-acted, just the physicality of the character). He's quite lovely.
Right. So things come to a head, Lucille reveals that she's collected locks of hair from every one of her victims (including her mother, as the first is brunette, iirc).
Edith loses her shit and manages to fight back, Thomas betrays Lucille, yadda yadda.
And people (ok, only Edith) spend an inordinate amount of time walking in snow barefoot. My feet ached in sympathy.
Then Edith turned into Alice Kingsley and slew the Jabberwock (seriously, stick both shots up frame for fram and it's the same stance and over-hand swing, guys. Also, the pithy quip).
And the films ends somewhere around there. It's not a happy ending, but it's not an Everybody Dies ending. It's a good ending, at least for me.
Mostly because I expect that Edith went on to become a novelist and hunt for ghosts (to learn their stories) and possibly teamed up with the Pinkerton detective in the wild west. Or something. IDK. I just like the idea that she didn't turn into some dull society girl or pining widow or married to Dr. Dull. Because the last thing would be ugh.
So I really liked the movie, I thought it was well-done and entertaining, and I'b buy it. And maybe see it again in theatre.
I was also a huge fan of the part where the heroine did her own damned saving. Like, I wouldn't have minded if she'd been rescued by Dr. Dull, but I quite enjoyed the fact that he basically was a set-piece to her escaping and triumphing.
Basically, if you're a fan of gothic horror and of complicated women (because Lucille is certainly complicated, and I think Edith was, too), and of women being their own hero, and of lavishly-colored movies and ghosts... You might enjoy this one.
As for me, I'm fucking disappointed that the only fic I can find appears to be Hiddleston fucks fangirls self-inserts, incest, Edith/Dr. Dull or hilariously awful Edith/Thomas First Love-Making Session. There's one unfinished Edith/Thomas fic, but it seems to be heading the True and Pure Love of a Pure and Good Woman is His Only Salvation, which, no.
I want Edith goes ghost-hunting/writes/uses her money to travel the world type fic. Sigh. (Edith forming her own band of Charlie's Angels to hunt ghosts and solve mysteries would be hilarious)
ok, also, Emma Bishop + Edith Cushing (Sharpe) as bffs would be fun, too.