Lady Chatterley’s Lover review: Erotic tale gets electric charge by Netflix-Larushka Ivan-Zadeh-Entertainment – Metro

Emma Corrin as Lady Chatterley and Jack O’Connell as Oliver Mellors in Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Picture: Netflix)

I wasn’t expecting much from this Netflix production beyond some glossily shot rumpy-pumpy. But this seductive version of DH Lawrence’s novel proved a classy surprise.

We all know the thrust of the story. Blushing young bride Lady Constance Chatterley (Emma Corrin, above, best known as Princess Diana in The Crown) becomes frustrated with her stuffy, self-centred husband Clifford (Matthew Duckett) when he returns from World War I paralysed from the groin down.

Reduced to being Clifford’s carer, Constance seeks (ahem) solace with gruff gamekeeper Mellors (Jack O’Connell), who enjoys reading James Joyce in addition to other outdoor pursuits.

So what justifies another screen adaptation of this notorious novel? Well, it’s directed by a woman, for one.

And French director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre notably focuses attention more on the interior life of Lady C. Speaking of which this is now the third ‘there were three of us in this marriage’ role for Emma Corrin, after The Crown and My Policeman, yet the non-binary actor is utterly transformed in every quicksilver turn they give. While Jack O’Connell more than holds his own as Mellors.

Yes, there’s plenty of nudity and sex but tactile eroticism – not graphic smut (it’s a 15 cert) – is the order of the day. What these two electric young stars really capture is the intense chemistry between two new lovers – that powerful, all-consuming pull.

Out now in selected cinemas and on Netflix from Friday

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