LADY MACBETH review (6/10)…Florence Pugh introduces herself to the world

Please note, this movie is not some sort of treatment of Shakespeare’s play or character. It is, really, just a short cut way of letting a potential viewer know they are about to encounter a cold, calculating woman who will literally stop at nothing to get what she desires.

We first meet Katherine as she is getting married in one of those cold, stone English churches. We find out quickly that she has essentially been “sold” to her new husband, a gruff, grubby farmer/landowner in what I’d guess is Northern England in the 19th century. They don’t know each other and they have no relationship. And he’s not exactly a doting husband. He tells his new bride (Florence Pugh, who was 19 at the time of filming and new to audiences) that she should confine herself to the house. Her new father-in-law, an even rougher and crustier version of the husband, tells her the same. He admonishes her for not producing an heir…something that will be tough, since her new husband does not sleep with her. He clearly has some hang-ups, and his new wife is of no real interest to him, so she pretty much spends her days just sitting around, waiting to eat her next meal and later, to go to bed. She has no friends, but an odd sort of relationship develops with her maid.