“Crimson Peak” Theatrical Review

Guillermo del Toro, the director of Crimson Peak, said that it is NOT a horror movie, but instead a gothic romance.  I start with this because it is a very important distinction.  It has been advertised as a horror movie and I am worried people will come out of the theater hating it because gothic romances are very different.

A gothic romance is a popular type of story from the turn of the century where a young woman is attracted to a dark, mysterious man and he takes her back to his large, old house or castle. It is usually a mystery and can include a supernatural element. Rebecca is a good example which was later turned into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock. Jane Eyre, Frankenstein and even Beauty and the Beast are also included in that genre. Now that you have a better idea of the type of genre we’re dealing with, I can give you a better review.

Crimson Peak is the story of a young American, Edith (Mia Wasikowska), who is an aspiring writer.  She meets the mysterious English aristocrat, Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston).  After the unfortunate murder of her father, Edith marries Thomas and moves to his English estate where his sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain), also resides.  The house is falling apart and the Sharpes have no money and no means of income.  Edith starts seeing ghosts in the house and sets out to solve the mystery surrounding the Sharpe siblings before it’s too late.

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This is definitely a del Toro movie, visually beautiful, but very strange.  Unlike del Toro movies though, it’s not as good as his other films. The story feels disconnected. There should have been a Part 1 and Part 2 labeled for the audience. Part 1 is when Edith and Thomas meet and fall in love in America and Part 2 is after they get married and move into his house in England.

As I said, this movie is truly beautiful. The colors of the costumes and the set design follows the story very well. In America everything is warm, inviting, and colorful. When they reach the manor, all the colors are dark and menacing, except for Edith’s costumes.  She wears bright yellow and white which glaringly stands out against the dark background and shows the viewer that she doesn’t belong there.

The costumes and sets are not only symbolic in color, but amazingly intricate.  The dresses that both Wasikowska and Chastain wear are covered in little buttons, bows, and ruffles. Anything to make them look expensive and stately. The set of the manor is gorgeous, covered in old portraits. The architecture is stunning and different around every corner, but fits together to create a once grand, but still imposing manor.

I really can’t say enough about the look of the film, mainly because the story doesn’t measure up. It’s an interesting story, especially if you like murder mysteries, but falls short. Wasikowska doesn’t deliver a great performance.  Honestly every movie I’ve ever seen her in I’ve been let down by her acting.  Then to put her next to Jessica Chastain, it makes her performance look even more weak.  

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Chastain is definitely the highlight of this movie. In fact I don’t think this movie lived up to her abilities. Her performance stood out so much from Wasikowska that it made the film feel a bit unbalanced and took me out of the story.

The movie comes across as a lesson to not live in the past. Edith is young, very independent, and from young country of America. The Sharpes are part of a dying aristocracy in an old country who are trying to revive their clay mining business that already went under.  

Lucille is more determined to live in the past than Thomas.  She rarely leaves the house and she is determined to keep everything as it was when her mother was alive. Thomas is much the same, but he is more in the middle of the two women. He is an inventor, looking to the future, and trying to create new things to bring the business back to life. Unfortunately, some things need to be left in the past.

This movie is the very definition of a gothic romance, but left me wanting more. It never found a rhythm and never became a cohesive piece. Perhaps the gothic romance is one thing that should be left in the past, and enjoyed for what they were; but not something that should be brought into the present day cinema.

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