Rarely have movie femme fatales been as foul-mouthed Scarlett Monaghan, but to
be fair, the Hays Code never let Lana Turner or Rita Hayworth have much
opportunity to cuss out the men they manipulated. Monaghan is also a particularly
fatal fatale, thanks to her boxing skills. Unfortunately, she has a knack for
getting mixed up with the wrong guys, but at least Robert McNaughton treats her
right, while he is alive. When he is betrayed, she starts gunning for revenge
in Neil Marshall’s Duchess, which releases Friday on digital and
on-demand.
Monaghan
caught McNaughton’s eye while picking pockets for her “Fagin.” When he beat her,
she fought back, but McNaughton finished him. After that, she was his fulltime
lover, arm candy, and confidante. Danny Oswald and Billy Baraka, McNaughton’s
partners from his merc days, also got along with her dubbing her “Duchess.”
Their
new business is dangerous, but extremely lucrative. They smuggle diamonds, but
not “blood diamonds,” except they’re all blood diamonds. Before long, they are
all double-crossed by Tom Sullivan, another old friend, who wasn’t as old and
clearly isn’t as friendly. Sullivan’s goons murder McNaughton, but Monaghan
survives through a fluke. Together with Oswald and Baraka, Monaghan hatches a
plan to avenge her lover and take back what is theirs.
By
far, Duchess is the best film Marshall has made with his fiancée (or
whatever) Charlotte Kirk, for many reasons. First and foremost, the brassy Monaghan
is the first starring role that truly suits her. Watching her playing an
impeccably coifed and made-up peasant in The Reckoning was just
ridiculous. This time around, she actually earns intentional laughs as the
trash-talking Monaghan.
Walter De Ville’s stately New Carfax Abbey does not look very new, but if you
remember who in horror fiction owned the old Carfax Abbey, you can understand
why he would make the distinction. The Stoker references will continue to
pop-up in Jessica M. Thompson’s The Invitation, which releases today on
DVD and also opens Thursday in Brazil (Brasil).
After
her mother’s death, Evie Jackson is alone in the world, except for her tiger-mom-ish
best friend Grace. Then she took a free genealogy test that surprisingly told
her she had a bunch of very rich and very white relatives in England.
Apparently, there was a scandal with a footman, way back when. Weirdly, the
Alexanders are strangely psyched to meet her. Suspiciously friendly Oliver
Alexander even offers to fly her out to an upcoming family wedding.
The
ceremony will be at New Carfax, hosted by their long-time family friend, De
Ville (do you hear what his name sounds like?). The exacting snobbery of De
Ville’s butler, Field, rubs Jackson the wrong way, but the gracious lord of the
manor smooths thing over. In fact, he launches a charm offensive that Jackson
does not entirely discourage. It is all pretty overwhelming for the poor
orphan, especially the elegant, bullying bridesmaid, so she does not notice how
many temp-maids keep getting murdered.
Real
genre fans should know they can get the killings with a little more violence with
VOD and DVD releases, compared to the PG-13 theatrical release. Anyone with any
pop culture literacy can guess De Ville’s deal. However, Thompson devotes so
much time to his courtship of Jackson, it starts to feel more like a regency
romance than a gothic supernatural yarn. Also, the concessions to class warfare
and gender-politics are shallow distractions that will badly date Invitation
in the years to come—“vampire at-large, women and the working-poor hardest hit.”
