REVIEW: Hedda [2025]

Rating: R | Runtime: 107 minutes
Release Date: October 22nd, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Amazon MGM Studios
Director(s): Nia DaCosta
Writer(s): Nia DaCosta / Henrik Ibsen (play “Hedda Gabler”)

Are you braver now?

Hedda Tesman née Gabler (Tessa Thompson) is seemingly taking a dip in the lake behind her new estate when Nia DaCosta’s Hedda (a reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler”) begins. Upon hearing that Eileen Lovborg (Nina Hoss) is on the phone, she exits the water and makes her way up to the house—dropping a series of stones from her dress along the way. Was this “dip” therefore an attempt at suicide? A cry for help? And mere hours before the party Hedda and her husband (Tom Bateman’s George) are throwing to mark their union?

The reason Eileen’s name shakes her from this depressive funk is initially believed to be because she’s the “one who got away.” An ex-lover recalling a moment in Hedda’s life before the patriarchal norms of society finally won out over her ambitious desire to be nonconforming. As we learn more about her temperament and the details surrounding the end of their affair (unwittingly helped by Eileen’s current partner’s, Imogen Poots’ Thea, belief Hedda is someone she can trust), however, it proves to be about a whole lot more.

DaCosta speaks about falling in love with Ibsen’s classic only to watch stage adaptations and wonder why everything that spoke to her was left out. So, she decided to craft an adaptation of her own that made “the subtext into text” and preserved the humor she so fervently latched onto. The result is a unique interpretation turning the titular protagonist into the bastard Black child of a renowned general and her ex Ejlert into a woman. I’ve never read the original, but it appears most of the plot points remain intact through this new lens.

The whole gives off a wonderful Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? energy that I embraced from the first frame. This notion that Hedda is playing a game for which only she knows the rules. A game whose theatrics we can revel in even as we don’t quite understand the motive yet. Is she trying to win Eileen back and sabotage her marriage? Does she shift to ruining Eileen’s new relationship upon learning of Thea’s love? To defaming her career upon discovering she’s up for the same professorship as George? Or, perhaps, just some unfinished business?

We float around the mansion as the guests arrive. Judge Roland Brack (Nicholas Pinnock), Hedda’s unofficial guardian with lecherous intent. Professor Greenwood (Finbar Lynch), the man in charge of hiring for the position George needs to afford the lavish lifestyle his wife demands and Eileen covets for academic validation. Thea’s unannounced appearance in hopes of serving as Eileen’s conscience, knowing her lover’s sobriety will be tested in full. And, finally, Eileen herself with a game-changing manuscript to secure the job.

We see the gears spinning inside Hedda’s brain each time one of them speaks with her to intentionally or accidentally (there’s a reason she plies them all with alcohol) divulge a fresh morsel of information that will either cement her plans or ignite a fresh diversion. They are her puppets, led around by their own vices to place themselves in compromising positions that will maintain her upper hand. The more out of control it gets, the wider Hedda’s grin. The more George tries to intervene, the quicker she manifests a new distraction.

And since that initial dip in the water is actually the start of a rewind courtesy of a post-party police interrogation, there’s also the looming assumption of tragedy. Add Hedda’s penchant for firearms and the rumors of murderous thoughts ending her time with Eileen and our minds are forever racing to figure out who the victim might become. Yes, another gun enters the fray with inebriated jealousy at the trigger, but we know it’s merely a red herring. Another nudge of chaos to clear the path for Hedda’s selfish end game.

It will always be selfish, even if she attempts to make her actions seem like they are in service of someone else. Why? Because the target of those attempts are always the people for whose interests she pretends to be assisting. Eileen receives the best line of the film when describing this reality, telling George that his wife will never act on anyone’s behalf but her own because that’s who Hedda Gabler is and the fantasy of her ever becoming Hedda Tesman is mere illusion. And even then—even if she wins—boredom will inevitably lead her back to that lake.

DaCosta is working with a stacked cast (Kathryn Hunter’s name isn’t even included in the opening credits despite being on-screen while they unfold), but you know that Thompson and Hoss are going to soar above the rest no matter how great Pinnock, Poots, Bateman, and others are. Hedda is never more compelling than when those two are going toe-to-toe with every barb holding the extra context of an ever-present history forever etched in their faces. The mix of adoration and loathing. That compulsion to please the other via their cruelty.

The script wields this playful treachery as a dance that reveals everyone is acting on their own behalf. Eileen’s reinvention at Thea’s hand to ensure her brilliance isn’t discredited. Thea’s compassion to pull herself into Eileen’s orbit once that shooting star erupts. George’s promise to take care of his new wife to satisfy his yearning to be loved. Hedda might be the most conniving of them, but their individual agendas remain. She very easily controls moments, but power over her life never manifests. So, she languishes in wait for the start of the next game.