Aarcflick

Words like “bold,” “daring,” and “wild” will be used—in fact, they already have been—to describe Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda,” one of the most original and exciting adaptations of a classic play in recent times. The same words apply to the film’s central character, the inscrutable and seemingly unscrupulous Hedda Gabler (a magnetic Tessa Thompson), here firmly transplanted from the late 19th-century context of Henrik Ibsen’s iconic play to the 1950s, without losing an ounce of her essence. The time period isn’t the only thing DaCosta, who also wrote the screenplay, has changed, as she now envisions Hedda as a Black woman (a supporting character marvels at her “dark” skin) whose romantic relationships involve both men and women. The former lover who shows up at her sprawling (read: unaffordable) country estate for a raucous (read: deadly) party is, in DaCosta’s version, now a woman: Eileen Lovborg, no longer Eilert Lovborg. Again, bold, daring, and wild changes, to be sure, but also imaginativ...