Currently on screen in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, Rachel Weisz has so many upcoming movies, she got Murtada wondering if a renaissance is brewing...
My Cousin Rachel
The Lobster is doing gangbusters in limited release and with critics. To these eyes it is uneven and Weisz is absent from its best part. In fact her performance is so bland, it weakens the second half of the movie particularly in comparison with the highly entertaining first act where Colin Farrell and particularly Olivia Colman are exultingly funny. Even when Weisz is front and center she seemed lost, not sure of the rhythm of the film. A supporting player like Lea Seydoux, with much less screen time, was more in sync with Lanthimos and the rest of the cast and outshines Weisz in the section they share...
Same with last year’s Youth. Despite plentiful screen time and a long monologue delivered with the camera squarely on her face in a closeup, she was outshined by Jane Fonda’s shorter but livelier monologue. However she emerges the winner from the trailer for the this fall’s The Light Between Oceans, with Nathaniel calling it “a sure bet baity part at this point in the year” and predicting her to be Oscar nominated. The early September release date in the no man’s land after the end of summer and before the fall prestige season implies that the distributor might not have faith in the movie’s prospects. But if anyone can muscle themselves to the Kodak with that release date it’s Weisz. She did it a decade ago when she won for a movie released on the same corridor.
Weisz’s Upcoming Movies
on the set of Denial
Complete Unknown
Joshua Marston’s long awaited follow up to Maria Full of Grace (2004) received middling reviews at Sundance, despite the presence of Michael Shannon, Kathy Bates and Danny Glover. No release date yet.
Denial
A real life story about historian Deborah Lipstadt who was sued by an outspoken Holocaust denier. In post production.
Deep Water
James Marsh’s follow up to The Theory of Everything (2014) is another real life story about a man’s “disastrous attempt to win the 1968 Golden Globe Race, ends up with him creating an outrageous account of traveling the world alone by sea”. Colin Firth is the lead and Weisz is his wife. In post production but hasn’t been picked for distribution in US yet.
My Cousin Rachel
An adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's gothic romance about a young Englishman (Sam Claflin) who inherits his guardian's estate, and begins to suspect the grieving widow (Weisz) of murder while falling in love with her. The novel was adapted in 1952 with Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton. Already a downgrade because even if you are a fan of Weisz, Claflin is no Burton. Currently filming.
The Favourite
A reunion with The Lobster’s Lanthimos and Colman with the addition of Emma Stone. It’s an Amadeus- like story about the political machinations during the reign of Queen Anne (Colman) with Stone as a young apprentice at court tryig to usurp her cousin (Weisz) as the Queen’s confidante. Announced last year but seems to have fallen off the radar specially after Lanthimos announced another movie.
This is a lot so it’s certainly quantity, but is there quality? Some of the directors are interesting, some of the stories are, but are you burning to see any of these? Weisz has her fans, though. Are you one of them?