The Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit

Resurrecting A Classic

Review by Alice Jones-Rodgers.

third decade of the 21st century, ‘Blithe Spirit’ has been given a new lease of life by director Edward Hall, with Dame Judi Dench, Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher and Leslie Mann taking on the aforementioned main roles.

‘Blithe Spirit’ tells the story of writer Charles Condomine, who, struggling for inspration, decides to hold a dinner party. He and his second wife, Ruth, invite a few guests including eccentric local medium, Madame Arcati, who is tasked with performing a seance after the meal. During a number of bizarre rituals, Madame Arcati inadvertently summons the spirit of Charles’ late first wife, Elvira. Only visible to her bewildered widow, Elvira takes up residence in the house and, as annoying in death as she was in life, refuses to leave.

The mark of a great piece of writing is its ability to transcend generations: a point proven by the latest film adaptation of Noël Coward’s classic 1941 theatre play ‘Blithe Spirit’.

As well as being resurrected in theatres and on television numerous times over the last eighty years, the darkly comic play has of course been successfully transferred to the big screen before, when Margaret Rutherford, Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings and Kay Hammond took on the roles of Madame Arcati, Charles Condomine, Ruth Condomine and Elvira Condomine, respectively, in David Lean’s 1945 adaptation. Now, in the 76 years ago, Hammond gave a magnificently frustrating performance

as Elvira and in 2021, Leslie Mann (best known for ‘Knocked Up’, 2007 and ‘Blockers’, 2018) brings a very similar quality to the role, whilst her co-stars Stevens (‘Downton Abbey’, 2010-12 and ‘The Man Who Invented Christmas’, 2017) and Fisher (‘Wedding Crashers’, 2005 and ‘The Great Gatsby’, 2015) were both excellent choices to fill the roles once occupied by Harrison and Cummings and are equally adept at bringing the film’s ensuing bizarre love triangle to life (as it were). However, just as Margaret Rutherford’s glorious depiction of Madame Arcati will be best remembered in the 1945 film, it is Dench’s performance that will be best remembered in this latest adaptation.

Rather than opt for a modern day setting to tell this ghostly tale, Hall has wisely chosen to transport the audience back to the time period in which the play and the original film were set and in doing so, has captured the essence of the era beautifully, the set and costume designs both adding to a film that is every bit as extravagantly presented as Lean’s classic. However, Hall’s adaptation deviates somewhat from Coward’s play and Lean’s film adaptation in terms of narrative structure. Whilst these liberties with Coward’s original script are an obvious attempt to make the story more accessible for modern audiences, the end of this film disappointingly loses the irony and comedy of the 1941 play and the 1945 film, whilst Madame Arcati’s story arc has been not altogether successfully overhauled. For those watching the film without any prior knowledge of ‘Blithe Spirit’ and its incredible history, this won’t make much of a difference, but it may grate on those going into it as a fan of Coward’s writing and the previous theatre and film incarnations of this celebrated work. For this reason, the 2021 film version of ‘Blithe Spirit’ isn’t exactly the best adaptation you will ever see in any area of the arts, but it is still a fun piece of screwball comedy that is, for the most part, very well delivered and stands as a testament to the timelessness of Coward’s story.

‘Blithe Spirit’ is released via Sky Cinema on 15th January.