Liv Ullmann takes liberties in adapting August Strindberg’s play about status and passion. Shifting the scene to Ireland, she cuts many secondary characters. But the opening out of a tale of cross-class lust so dependent upon claustrophobic intensity proves ruinous.
Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell ably depict the power games as a baron’s daughter loses control while flirting with her father’s valet on Midsummer’s Eve. But their performances are much more studied than Samantha Morton’s, as the pious cook who takes exception to her fiancé betraying her with the mistress. Polished, but lacking in scandalous tragedy.