Mickey 17 might be struggling at the box office, but one of its stars, Naomi Ackie, is thriving. After shrugging off being wasted in the worst Star Wars movie, she’s ascended in her career by taking on diverse film genres, like the secretive thrills of Blink Twice or the biopic bombast of I Wanna Dance With Somebody. She continuously fills her roles with verve and intrigue, somebody who draws inherent interest in her movement without the need to speak. It’s something she’s done since her debut film, where she held her own against Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth, a cold-blooded thriller masquerading as a prestigious chamber drama.
What Is ‘Lady Macbeth’ About?
Katherine (Pugh) has just been sold into a loveless marriage with Alexander (Paul Hilton), where she’s frequently left alone in his home with his father-in-law, Boris (Christopher Fairbank). Alexander and Boris have no interest in treating her with any respect, as they frequently berate her and demean her for the slightest misstep that she makes, treating her more like furniture. This leaves her isolated and frustrated, feeling snuffed out and adrift in a situation she didn’t ask for. Her only support system is Anna (Ackie), the housemaid who tends to her and is willing to offer a kind shoulder to cry on, and Sebastian (Shōgun‘s Cosmo Jarvis), a worker who catches Katherine’s eye and her affections. However, Katherine’s coping skills leave much to be desired, as she spirals into a downhill race towards destruction as she goes full Mean Girls and manipulates and bullies everyone around her so she can acquire a prosperous life for herself. While it’s no doubt Pugh’s show, as she gives a ruthless and vulnerable performance that put her on the map as a promising new star, Naomi Ackie easily holds her own as arguably the second most important character in the film.
Naomi Ackie Holds Attention With Imploding Terror
Naomi Ackie’s performance relies on being able to communicate an internal battle of wills and mounting desperation as she outwardly willingly does what others tell her to do, since Anna is locked into a position she can’t escape from. Being the only woman of color in a servant role for wealthy white people, she has no recourse to do anything besides take the racist bullying she’s subjected to. She’s smart enough to know the danger she could always be in, and Ackie beautifully shows us how terrified she is at any given moment, even as she’s presenting a cool demeanor for all to see. The way she’s hesitant to make eye contact or will have her hands together with the slightest of shivers is all we need to see how observant she is and how her ability to read a room is both a blessing and a curse. The one time we see her get to fully release what she’s had to choke down, silently crying in bed after a sudden death in the family, is a cathartic sucker punch that drives home how little justice she’ll get due to Katherine’s malevolence. It’s Anna’s slowly crumbling composure that speaks to the most devastating theme of the film, one that’s never truly verbalized but is always present.
Naomi Ackie Pulls Off a Huge Ask For a First Role
Lady Macbeth pulls a neat switcheroo where you initially think it will become a standard entry in the “good for her” female empowerment subgenre, similar to a later Pugh film, Midsommar. We see Katherine suffer under patriarchal misogyny, and we see the silent pain in her face, and we’re programmed to go, “Yes, she deserves to get her just desserts.” But she takes her revenge so far and ruins so many people’s lives with such spineless selfishness that it curdles your blood to think you ever sided with her—her dynamic with Anna drives that betrayal home. Katherine never does or says anything overtly racist towards Anna, and Anna only treats Katherine more unkindly after Katherine has already been repeatedly mean to her, but you feel the racial tension permeating throughout each scene.
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The uncertain chemistry between Pugh and Ackie details the underlying fragility of their supposed bond, with Katherine demonstrating how those who suffer under one kind of oppression can use their suffering to justify trampling over the lives of other oppressed individuals for their own personal gain. You wouldn’t feel the full weight of the cavernous depravity of Katherine’s climactic decisions if you weren’t locked into Anna’s experience as she bears witness to Katherine’s duplicity, and Naomi Ackie makes a remarkable first impression by carrying such a vital emotional burden without ever seeming overwhelmed by it.
Lady Macbeth
- Release Date
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December 12, 2016
- Runtime
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86 minutes
- Director
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William Oldroyd
- Writers
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Alice Birch
- Producers
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Christopher Granier-Deferre, Christopher Moll, Jim Reeve, Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Lizzie Francke
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Paul Hilton
Alexander Lester
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