Nia DaCosta’s Melodrama Recasts Hedda in 1950s England | JQJO

Director Nia DaCosta delivers a heady, Ibsen-inspired melodrama set in a 1950s English country house, where Hedda (Tessa Thompson) marries timid scholar George Tesman (Tom Bateman) for luxury in a vast house now burdened by debt. As a coveted professorship becomes crucial, Hedda’s ex-lover Eileen Lövborg (Nina Hoss) arrives, also seeking the job, sparking a spiraling, booze-fueled party and manipulations around Eileen’s manuscript. Kathryn Hunter offers a resoundingly authentic speech as Bertie below stairs. The film indulges absurdity and counter-historical diversity, openly noting racial difference, as its fevered mix of hedonism, gossip, and semi-intentional violence smolders.