Hedda (2025)
Directed by: Nia DaCosta
Premise: Based on Henrik Ibsen’s stage play. Set in 1950s England, Hedda (Tessa Thompson) throws a high society party attended by the faculty of a university where her husband is up for a professorship. The festivities are crashed by two women (Nina Hoss and Imogen Poots) who have a complicated relationship with Hedda.
What Works: Hedda is a story of a master manipulator who revels in sowing chaos. The filmmaking matches the protagonist. Director Nia DaCosta stages the action in interesting ways that pick up on the power relationships between the characters and reveal their personalities. The fluid camerawork and editing choices visualize the chaotic nature of Hedda’s existence. The lighting and visual texture gives the movie a sensual quality. Hedda uses this party to gather all the people who will advance her husband’s career and therefore secure their financial future. Her plans are complicated when the party is crashed by Eileen and Thea. They are in a romantic relationship but also a professional one; these women have coauthored a book and Eileen is angling for the same professorship as Hedda’s husband. This sets Hedda on a campaign to undermine Eileen which is further complicated by their own backstory. Hedda is bisexual by necessity and had a previous relationship with Eileen. Stories hinge on what characters want and what they will do in pursuit of their desires and in Hedda those desires are complex and interweave romantic passion and cold practicality. Hedda is set in a posh high society setting not far departed from Downton Abbey but places sexuality and corruption at the heart of it. That tension exposes a fundamental hypocrisy in which social propriety and academic interests give cover to base desires. Gender politics complicate matters for Hedda and Eileen who move through patriarchal spaces and negotiate between entertaining men’s desires and guarding their own integrity. While dealing with all this heavy thematic material, Hedda is also very funny. Tessa Thompson is great in the title role; we can see Hedda’s internal calculations as she moves through the party and Thompson is fascinating to watch.
What Doesn’t: The only part of the film that is wobbly is the final scene in which Hedda has a confrontation with Judge Brack (Nicholas Pinnock). At that point it is the next day and nearly everyone has gone home, so it’s unclear why Brack is still at the house. This is the kind of story point that probably worked on stage but is less convincing on film. Brack is a background character through much of the picture; Hedda is not really in conflict with him so this last scene feels separate from the rest of the story. The action takes a violent turn that feels sudden and forced and is arbitrarily resolved.
Disc extras: Available on Amazon Prime Video.
Bottom Line: Hedda is filmmaker Nia DaCosta’s best film so far. It is extraordinarily well made both in its technical polish and in the purposefulness of its filmmaking techniques. It’s scandalous fun but also a thoughtful film that is intricately plotted with equally complex characters.
Episode: #1081 (January 4, 2026)