10 Best British Movies Of 2017

The title of Lady Macbeth is somewhat misleading, given the fact the film is not even tangentially connected to the William Shakespeare play. In fact, theatre director William Oldroyd's debut feature film is adapted from a 19th century Russian novel, named after Shakespeare's manipulative female character.

This film adaptation relocates the action to the Northumberland countryside, where Florence Pugh plays the lady of the manor left behind by her much older and sexually dysfunctional husband. She starts a passionate affair with farmhand Sebastian, portrayed by singer-songwriter Cosmo Jarvis, and begins to plan for her own self-preservation when her husband inevitably returns.

There's a shocking darkness to Lady Macbeth, which particularly comes to the fore in a murderous third act scene. Pugh, who has marked herself out as a real talent to watch, embraces every complexity of the character and is unafraid to find the darkest depths of the woman she portrays. Her next film will see her star as a wrestler alongside Dwayne Johnson, but hopefully she won't forget her British cinema roots.