Lady Macbeth movie review & film summary (2017)

It’s a sinister light that radiates from her – although, not at first. Part of what’s so fascinating about “Lady Macbeth,” and its script from Alice Birch, is the way in which it manages to maintain Pugh’s character’s status as a strangely sympathetic figure, even as she commits increasingly horrific acts. She does it all in the name of liberation, but that freedom ultimately comes at a hefty price.

“Lady Macbeth” is based not on the iconic Shakespearean character but on Nikolai Leskov’s Russian novella “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk,” which tackled the ways in which the female spirit could be stifled in the 19^th century, particularly in rural communities. When we first see Pugh’s Katherine, it’s on her wedding day in 1865; just from this opening scene, Oldroyd efficiently sets the tone for the film’s prevailing austerity.

This should, theoretically, be a joyous occasion. But at just 17, Katherine is being forced into a marriage with a man more than twice her age: the emotionally withholding Alexander (Paul Hilton), whose wealthy father, Boris (Christopher Fairbank), has purchased Katherine along with a plot of land. Katherine’s sole purpose is to provide an heir, but it’s clear from the couple’s cold, sexless wedding night that’s going to be a challenge. 

“I’m thick-skinned,” she proclaims in the darkness of their bedroom, defiantly. And she’s going to need that.

She slogs around the joyless house, day after day, with her ever-present maid, Anna (Naomi Ackie), serving as the main witness to her boredom and frustration. (As showy as Pugh’s performance is externally, Ackie does just as much mostly wordlessly with just her eyes and her presence, especially as the situation grows more extreme.) But when both of the oppressive men in her life are forced to leave the family’s remote estate on business, Katherine takes the opportunity to begin exploring the outside world – which prompts an awakening inside her.