Movie Musings: Gretel & Hansel - Can an Accent Derail a Film?

     Gretel & Hansel differentiates itself from the numerous other Hansel & Gretal adaptations not only by the flipping of the title but also as it focuses more on Gretal by making her older than her brother and is charged with looking after him as they are both cast out to wander the forest and... well, you know the rest.

      Directed by Oz Perkins (who previously made the sparse but unsettling The Blackcoat’s Daughter – also known as February), I expected this to be a dark and more horror-centric take on the well-known Brother’s Grimm fairy tale. And whilst you do indeed get that, the end result doesn’t quite succeed and it's not something I can really recommend.

      It’s a strange as the cinematography and music in this film is exceptional: however the story itself doesn’t quite gel, the characters aren't fleshed out enough and the editing is a tad disjointed and confusing at times. My biggest issue however is with the accent of the lead character Gretel. It’s not entirely clear where the events of the film takes place but everyone has some form of British accent, although the specific regional dialects used from character to character are admittedly a bit varied also. However Gretel, who the film focuses on and who provides a voice over for many scenes, has a distinctly American accent.

     Played by Sophia Lillis (who you will recognize as the young Beverly from the recent It films), her performance itself is actually pretty good – it’s just a shame that the accent is so distracting. It’s not clear if she wasn’t able to pull off at least a more neutral accent or if the director simply didn’t want her to but the end effect is so jarring, especially since she is the main character and there is so much voice over from her utilised throughout.

      It may seem like this shouldn’t be a significant criticism and accents are not usually something I would take issue with in most films but when Gretel’s speech is so noticeably different from her brother Hansel’s (despite the two supposednly having grown up together side by side) it just shatters the immersion. Characters also 'oink' at each other far too often, but that's another thing all together.

27th April 2020