Review: Lady Macbeth (15)

Adapted by scriptwriter Alice Birch from Nikolai Leskov's 19th-century Russian novella, Lady Macbeth Of The Mtsensk, this gripping tragedy resets the sex-fuelled skulduggery to Victorian England, where women are treated as commodities by glowering husbands.

The anti-heroine of Lady Macbeth, portrayed with scorching intensity by 19-year-old Florence Pugh, openly defies these well-worn social conventions to pursue her own selfish agenda, leaving devastation and a mounting body count in her wake. Filmed on location in County Durham, Lady Macbeth is largely faithful to the plotting of the source text, apart from an emotionally chilly denouement that showcases Pugh’s mastery of her character’s poisonous emotions.

In selected cinemas