Wendy Ide 

Lady Chatterley’s Lover review – Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell crackle in the gloom

The excellent leads lift this fitfully handsome adaptation of DH Lawrence’s forbidden classic
  
  

Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell in Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
‘Feverish’: Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell in Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Netflix Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix

There’s enough of a spark between Emma Corrin, playing Lady Constance Chatterley, and Jack O’Connell, as smouldering gamekeeper Oliver Mellors, to fuel a sizeable chunk of the national grid. Which is why it’s surprising that the many breathlessly urgent sex scenes in this handsome adaptation of DH Lawrence’s novel seem a little underpowered – a combination of a weirdly unappealing blueish tone to the grade and the agitated camerawork loses some of the erotic tension. It’s a pity, because elsewhere the film is impressive: there’s a feverish wildness to Corrin’s performance, while O’Connell unleashes the full force of his considerable charisma.

• In cinemas now and on Netflix from 2 December

Watch a trailer for Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
 

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