Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Yet another adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s steamy romance proves no more convincing than all the others (and there have been many).

Nature lovers: Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell

The guts at the core of Lady Chatterley’s Lover is the passion between the frustrated Constance Chatterley and the lusty gamekeeper whom she draws into her rarefied embrace. Such is the attraction between the rough, common Oliver Mellors and the literate, cosmopolitan, intellectually rigorous Lady Chatterley, that they risk everything to consummate their connection. That’s all fine and dandy when you have 112,424 words at your disposal. However, it’s a hard ask to compress such an improbable scenario into two hours of screen time. And yet filmmakers are repeatedly drawn to the flame. So, what is it, Dear Filmmaker? The artistic challenge? Or the prospect of luring a new generation to a familiar, somewhat lascivious brand name?

So many actresses have played Lady Chatterley that one of them (Joely Richardson) turns up here, in the subsidiary role of Sir Clifford’s nurse, Mrs Bolton. Just sixteen years ago, a French director tried her hand at adapting D.H. Lawrence’s original 1927 version, John Thomas and Lady Jane, which happened to be the third French edition of the story. That director, Pascale Ferran, felt the more famous book was “essentially unadaptable”, so opted to explore its simpler and more direct predecessor. The result was a long-winded and laboured affair. In fact, Ferran directed two versions, the other being an even longer one for TV. Since then there has been an additional adaptation (in 2015), starring Holliday Grainger, and now comes another female French director, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, gamely attempting to ignite that elusive emotional fire. De Clermont-Tonnerre takes a very modern stance, citing Roe v. Wade and the theft of women’s freedom in Iran, in order to explore a woman attempting to take control of her own sexuality.

That’s all very well, and Emma Corrin, most famous for playing Princess Di in The Crown, throws her all into the role. Her Constance is an ungainly lady of the manor, a little short on the small talk and physically tense. When her husband, Sir Clifford (Matthew Duckett), says at the beginning, “I love you, Con”, she fails to reply. And so off to war he goes, only to return in a wheelchair. The earlier scenes feel a little rushed, as if the film can’t wait to get down to you-know-what. And so the gruff, reticent Oliver Mellors (Jack O'Connell) is hired as gamekeeper and Connie takes to much perambulation to escape the claustrophobia of her husband’s disability and the imposing interiors of Wragby Hall. When Mellors was himself at war, his wife played around but now refuses him a divorce, hoping to capitalise from his war pension. So he lives alone in a hut and Lady Chatterley is denied her marital rights due to her husband’s paralysis. One thing will undoubtedly lead to another.

On paper – and in D.H. Lawrence’s 1928 novel – their affair made perfect sense. But on screen, Emma Corrin and Jack O'Connell seem so diametrically opposed that we cannot believe they feel anything more for each other than a basic animal lust. And yet their characters jeopardise everything for something deeper, for something more human. He, Mellors, is reading James Joyce, while Clifford is bashing out penny dreadfuls to fill his time – that could have prompted an interesting conversation between Connie and the gamekeeper. If only.

The language is toned down for the 15 certificate, but there is a naked romp in the rain and a good deal of thrusting, which would explain the MPAA's R rating in the US (it got a 12 in Germany). So at least viewers shouldn’t be disappointed by the nooky. More problematic is the lack of chemistry between the leads, all that dappled sunlight, some very odd camera angles and an abrasive score. At the time, it may have seemed inspired to hire the keyboardist of Florence + the Machine to write the music, but it’s just another intrusion on what is a very fragile affaire de coeur. You will not believe.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Emma Corrin, Jack O'Connell, Matthew Duckett, Faye Marsay, Ella Hunt, Joely Richardson, Anthony Brophy, Rachel Andrews, Nicholas Bishop, Sandra Huggett, Diva (as Flossie, the dog). 

Dir Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Pro Laurence Mark, Pete Czernin and Graham Broadbent, Screenplay David Magee, Ph Benoît Delhomme, Pro Des Karen Wakefield, Ed Géraldine Mangenot, Music Isabella Summers, Costumes Emma Fryer, Dialect coach Sarah McGuinness. 

Blueprint Pictures/3000 Pictures-Netflix.
125 mins. UK/USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 2 December 2022. Cert. 15.