"Remaking Robert Hamer's 1949 British classic Kind Hearts and Coronets—the greatest Ealing Studios comedy and, in my own fevered opinion, the greatest film of all time—needs the chutzpah of Cecilia Gimenez, the amateur Spanish artist who restored a painting of Christ and left him looking like a gibbon."
"The original starred Dennis Price as Louis, an Edwardian draper's assistant who is distant heir to a dukedom, and who is living in genteel poverty because his late mother was cruelly rejected by her snobbish family for marrying beneath her—for love, in fact. Louis vengefully sets out to murder all the family members that stand between him and the coronet."
"This new version directed by John Patton Ford, of Aubrey Plaza thriller Emily the Criminal, transplants the action to the present-day US, and Glen Powell plays a young man with the bizarrely Wasp name of Becket Redfellow, excluded from the clan and keen on serial-killing his way to control of the family estate."
"The film sticks pretty close to the original's plot but the victims are lamely played by different people. Perhaps no actor dared take on Guinness's amazing multi-role."
Robert Hamer's 1949 Kind Hearts and Coronets, considered one of cinema's greatest comedies, follows Louis, a distant heir to a dukedom living in genteel poverty after his mother was rejected by her snobbish family. Louis murders his relatives standing between him and the coronet, with Alec Guinness brilliantly playing all his enemies. The new American remake directed by John Patton Ford relocates the story to present-day US with Glen Powell as Becket Redfellow, a young man excluded from his family seeking to kill his way to control of the estate. While the plot remains similar, the remake loses the original's class-consciousness and class shame elements essential to its impact. The ensemble cast delivers weaker performances compared to the original's iconic roles.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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