My Cousin Rachel
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: June 9, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
10
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJun 12, 2017
Roger Michell's revival of My Cousin Rachel is a graceful note amid summer's movie din, adapting Daphne du Maurier's black widow mystery with class bordering on defiance. Read full review
80
Village VoiceApril WolfeJun 8, 2017
Tense and at times downright frightening. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 8, 2017
Weisz’s performance is what provides the tension. It’s impossible to read her — or, more accurately, it’s possible to misread her. That’s kind of the same thing, but not quite. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 8, 2017
Anchored in an exceptionally persuasive performance by Rachel Weisz, "My Cousin Rachel" is not only a triumphant exercise in dark and delicious romantic ambiguity, the pitfalls of being taken in are what this melodramatic thriller is all about. Read full review
75
IndieWireJude DryJun 13, 2017
The film is visually breathtaking, and anchored by two strong performances. But the loyalties in My Cousin Rachel seesaw too dramatically for tension to build satisfyingly; the film runs hot and cold when it really wants to simmer. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJun 9, 2017
A gothic moodpiece masquerading as a thriller, My Cousin Rachel is a misdirected swoon of a movie—long on black-veiled romance and ravishing atmosphere and a little short, alas, on dividends. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 9, 2017
The magnificence of Weisz’s performance — yes, it’s another magnificent performance from Rachel Weisz — is that she is never hiding anything, beyond what a 19th century woman might conceal out of polite reserve. In her every moment on screen, she is an open book. We’re just not seeing all her pages. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerJun 8, 2017
What it is, is a delicious black-widow mystery, in which the deep-gazing actress Rachel Weisz rocks the veil. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJun 8, 2017
It’s pretty, it’s melodramatic-verging-on-silly, and if you like this sort of thing it’s great fun. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 8, 2017
With impeccable period detail, strong character development, superior acting, and a surprisingly fast pace, this film represents welcome counterprogramming to the typical loud and vacuous summertime multiplex fare. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 8, 2017
Weisz and the sharpest supporting players lift My Cousin Rachel to a higher plane. Holliday Granger as Philip's smitten family friend; Simon Russell Beale, a truly great actor, as the skeptical family solicitor; Tim Barlow, tottering around as the sublimely crusty servant: These are choice turns. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 7, 2017
It might not be a visual buffet on the order of Guillermo Del Toro’s "Crimson Peak," but sometimes a more modest meal will do. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 7, 2017
Credit Rachel Weisz, who's just the dynamite actress needed to play a character who could be a misunderstood innocent or a fortune-hunting seductress who could be a cold-blooded killer. How delicious to watch the star keep us guessing. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 6, 2017
Michell ensures that the cryptic finale to My Cousin Rachel isn’t so much a solution as an invitation to an argument on the drive home from the cinema. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 9, 2017
My Cousin Rachel is a fascinating hybrid. It uses clunky devices out of a 19th-century melodrama, but its subject is modern: mistakes of perception and of metaphor. It’s about the myopia of the male gaze. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJun 8, 2017
Here, it is saying in effect, are old-fashioned conventions that still have life in them, but to appreciate them we need to approach them playfully. That worked for me, from the understated start to the overwrought finish. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenJun 2, 2017
There's enough dark sizzle between leads Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin to keep the audience involved through the underpowered middle stretches before the film regains its footing, delivering a disquieting shiver of a conclusion. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganJun 2, 2017
Weisz shows her Oscar-winning talents by hitting precisely the right notes throughout My Cousin Rachel: from warmth to guile to chilly practicality. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 2, 2017
It’s pure pleasure to watch Weisz as Rachel, who is also an actress of sorts, adapting to suit the needs and desires of whoever she’s seducing. Her manipulations feel more intuitive than conniving and need not be explicitly sexual per se. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 9, 2017
She (Weisz) accomplishes the near-impossible here: She humanizes a Gothic conceit and, in so doing, turns stage blood into real blood. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 7, 2017
My Cousin Rachel is a well-turned, well-acted literary adaptation that suffers from a built-in problem: The hero is a twit. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonJun 7, 2017
After a while, the enigmatic nature of Rachel Weisz's character starts to feel less like an enticing mystery than a narrative trick. Read full review
60
EmpireAngie ErrigoJun 8, 2017
Handsomely done but short on the atmosphere and passion of a genre classic. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 8, 2017
It’s all very pretty, but too often the movie’s beauty isn’t tethered to deep feeling or strong ideas, one reason you may often find your eyes and thoughts drifting away from the quietly escalating drama toward the vast green fields, the majestic horses and nice detail work. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyJun 8, 2017
The story’s insistent ambiguities ought to make it seductively complex, but it never quite shakes off a stuck-in-the-mud vibe. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJun 8, 2017
That's no small thing: to leave viewers with unanswered questions but still make them satisfied they've gotten a full movie experience. But there it is. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeJun 5, 2017
This is a fresh and un-stuffy period drama mostly, but it could have done with a pinch more danger. Read full review
55
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJun 2, 2017
Weisz and Claflin make a memorable couple, but it’s too bad their chemistry is wasted on such a wan drama. A little less taste and a little more oomph might have made all the difference. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 8, 2017
What’s missing from this production is the darkness — the perversity, even — that informs du Maurier’s work, and that would elevate an attractively illustrated story into aesthetically and psychologically vivid cinema. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJun 8, 2017
It doesn’t help that Weisz and Claflin have zero chemistry, and both come across as miscast. She lacks the aura of mystery that her character requires, and he’s woefully low on the charisma required of a romantic hero. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthJun 7, 2017
For all the strong performances and able filmmaking, My Cousin Rachel never quite coheres. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 14, 2017
My Cousin Rachel 2017 retreads du Maurier’s luscious mix of Gothic trappings and psychological mystery, but it’s a wan concoction that’s never fully convincing or engaging. Read full review
38
ObserverOliver JonesJun 9, 2017
A far too anemic and restrained take on a story that demands at least some kind of dour sensuousness if not straight-up bodice ripping. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJun 9, 2017
One of the problems with this My Cousin Rachel is that it’s hard to come up with any issue or reason relative to its creation, I’m afraid. Read full review
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