"Hedda" - DaCosta Goes Theatrical

Filmmaker Nia DaCosta is one that I’ve been consistently paying attention to since her grossly underrated re-imagining of Candyman in 2021. She is an absolute beast behind the camera, so much so that it often highlights her shortcomings in the writer’s room. Since Candyman, she’s been consistently adapting previously produced material. While Hedda shows her taking the most creative liberties with said material yet, there is still a bit of the film, and DaCosta herself, that feels slightly restrained by the formula pre-presented to her. 

The film reimagines the play, Hedda Gabler, and follows the titular character (Tessa Thompson) who is trapped in a marriage she wants out of, and decides to sabotage nearly everyone around her at a fateful dinner party. The technicalities in this film are almost exclusively extraordinary. The film looks absolutely stunning with a more gothic, naturalized approach to the lighting. There is one sequence in the latter half in particular involving a giant bonfire that is one of the most stunning series of images of the year. Furthermore, DaCosta’s direction is spectacular. There is a double dolly shot early on in the film that has been seared into my mind since the premiere. Her mastery behind the camera makes the overall edit and timing of the film move at a solid pace…even when we aren’t quite sure why we’re supposed to be paying attention. 

As someone who hasn’t read the play and whose knowledge comes exclusively from the post-screening talk-back with the crew, I’ve come to understand that the original play actually takes place over an extended period of time, and they adapted it to take place over the course of a single evening. This is both a partial elevation and hindrance to the story. It certainly makes the film feel more suspenseful, as we’re always clued into how much time is left for mysteries to be unveiled. But at the same time it makes the timing of these moments feel largely rushed and partially unmotivated once they actually show up. 

We’re immediately thrown into the fray with Hedda as a character with a sharp and funny opening scene that establishes her beautifully, but after this we’re given a plethora of side characters whose relationships to her, or purpose for existing remain unclear for most of the first two acts. The dialogue remains biting with plenty of zingers thrown in, but with an emotional attachment largely absent in these moments, it’s hard to not think that these moments don’t hit to their fullest potential if you aren’t already clued in. It’s possible that fans of the play won’t mind, or future repeat viewings of the film will alleviate this issue, but for the first thirty to forty minutes of it my mind was consistently leaning in the direction of “this is exquisitely put together…but what’s the point?”

With all of that being said, once Hedda’s manipulation and gaslighting of those around her starts to finally materialize, we are gifted with some largely effective and cathartic moments. Thompson is obviously fantastic as the title character, but the undeniable standout here is veteran Nina Hoss who devours every moment she’s given. 

The story makes some pretty dramatic twists in the final act, and while I mentioned earlier that the film occasionally struggles to time them all to maximum catharsis, the beats themselves largely work. The filmmakers afterwards discussed their choice to make the ending to the film feel more ambiguous than the book, and given the difference in theme that the film has compared to the play, this choice in my opinion entirely worked. There is a level of humanity that the film asks you to feel towards the titular character that is allegedly more absent in the play. The film effectively tows the line of never justifying her actions, but depicting the circumstances that drive her to them. 

For all of Hedda’s faults, I found myself largely won over by it in the end, and so much of this is due to how magnetic of a voice Nia DaCosta is. Her soul and passion for the craft is present in every frame, and as soon as she gives herself more freedom in the writer’s room, I could see one of her works becoming a modern classic in the future. I can’t wait for The Bone Temple.