Review of The Scapegoat (2013) by Phyllis C — 30 Apr 2013

The Scapegoat is a wonderful film, beautifully shot with solid direction and excellent performances throughout. Loosely based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, one reviewer said he had to stop watching because he knew the ending would be tragic.

I know exactly how he felt; du Maurier often wrote dark novels with rather tragic endings that would not always translate well into a movie format. In the film, Rebecca, the plot got the "Hollywood" treatment which cleaned up the ending a bit: in the book, although goaded, Maxim really does intentionally kill his wife; it isn't an accident like in the movie version.

With Scapegoat, I am grateful I stuck with it to the end, because the ending was very rewarding, not a tragedy as he predicted. Although his comment was erroneous, it is a testament to the power of the film; the characters are so convincing, our lead is so sympathetic, that to have disaster fall at the end would have been a huge disappointment.

(I don't always require a happy ending to find a movie worthwhile; but in this case, it was a great improvement to the novel's plot and increased my enjoyment of the film immensely.) I am also pleased that they were able take a rather worn out premise and make it fresh again-the 'trading places' theme as been done so many times that it would have been easy to drop the ball on this one.

Instead, we get a reasonably believable approach--or perhaps the performances are so strong and the direction so solid that we find it easy to suspend reality and just "go with it." If you love romantic stories, you will surely love this tale.