X
In Theaters Now
- 2025
- R
- Amazon MGM Studios
- 1 h 47 m
- 2025
- R
- Amazon MGM Studios
- 1 h 47 m
Summary Hedda (Tessa Thompson) finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt—pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal. A reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s...
Directed By: Nia DaCosta
Written By: Henrik Ibsen, Nia DaCosta
In Theaters Now
- 2025
- R
- Amazon MGM Studios
- 1 h 47 m
- 2025
- R
- Amazon MGM Studios
- 1 h 47 m
Hedda
70
5.4
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Summary Hedda (Tessa Thompson) finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt—pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal. A reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s...
Directed By: Nia DaCosta
Written By: Henrik Ibsen, Nia DaCosta
Where to Watch
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 34 Critic Reviews
70
71% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
24% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
6% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 34 Critic Reviews
70
71% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
24% Mixed
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
6% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Oct 30, 2025
While DaCosta’s intelligence as a writer and director makes Hedda a standout film, her penchant for play makes it a delightful one.
Oct 30, 2025
There’s more going on here than pretty pictures: This fascinating portrait of a lady has ice and steel at its core.
User Score
Mixed or Average Based on 29 User Ratings
5.4
45% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
28% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
28% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average Based on 29 User Ratings
5.4
45% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
28% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
28% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
Nov 15, 2025
An amazing tour de force, beautifully scripted and filmed. Tessa Thompson and Nina Hoss give two of their finest performances, and the two are supported by a strong ensemble cast of characters. Most reviewers seem to have an issue with the changes Nia DaCosta made to Ibsen's original play, but the film is dramatic, rich and riveting, as you have no idea how Hedda's mischievous plan of destruction is going to play out or who is going to be caught in the crossfire.
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Sep 9, 2025
Hedda’s magnetism is undeniable, and that people would be under her thrall is understandable. DaCosta and a talented team of craftspeople bolster that idea at every turn.
Nov 3, 2025
There is a ritualistic, even tribal, quality to DaCosta’s telling that suggests a truth to the story untethered to time or place: Any woman confined like Hedda is will strive to escape, one way or another.
By Naveen Kumar FULL REVIEW
Nov 1, 2025
Tessa Thompson's presence is captivating, as she relishes in exploring her character's gleeful and occasionally anxious villainy.
Oct 22, 2025
If you’re not already familiar with the play, you may find yourself a little lost in Hedda—or perhaps just bored.
Oct 23, 2025
An audience’s mileage for Hedda will depend on how much they enjoy watching what is little more than a parlour game between the pampered upper classes.
Nov 14, 2025
How many bad things can happen at a high society party, where alcohol consumption, jealousy and envy begin to take their toll? It is likely that most people will not find the charm of a film whose story unfolds in a single setting. Its greatest strengths are the performances and the bitter humour.
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Nov 5, 2025
Nia DaCosta has established herself as one of the most promising directors of the new generation, and Hedda reinforces this impression. The film is a reinterpretation of Henrik Ibsen's classic play Hedda Gabler, published in 1891, now revisited with a modern and thought-provoking perspective. With Tessa Thompson in the lead role, accompanied by Nina Hoss and Nicholas Pinnock, DaCosta presents a story about power, desire, and manipulation, led by a complex protagonist who is caught between social conventions and her own ambitions.Still, Nia DaCosta's talent and courage are undeniable. Adapting a 19th-century play and transforming it into a contemporary narrative is a risky challenge, and she does so without losing the essence of the story. Her direction is confident, her aesthetic vision is striking, and her ability to explore the inner lives of her characters is what brings Hedda to life. Even if the script does not maintain the same level of strength from beginning to end, there is evident care in every detail—from the construction of the space to the way the characters' gazes meet.Ultimately, Hedda is a film about imprisonment. Not only that of a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage, but also that of someone who tries to control the world around her and ends up being a victim of herself. DaCosta delivers a thought-provoking work, albeit an imperfect one. It is a film that starts strong, loses steam in the middle, but ends in a striking way. What remains is the image of a woman in conflict, a director coming into her own, and an actress in full command of her **** Hedda, Nia DaCosta reaffirms her authorial voice and her view of female power — in all its beauty, contradiction, and destruction. Even without achieving complete balance, the film makes it clear that the director still has a lot to say. And if the path between the beginning and the end is uneven, what exists between these extremes is, above all, human.
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Oct 29, 2025
"Hedda" is a sensual, ingenious update of Ibsen’s classic play, honoring the grand theatrical tradition and transforming it into new, ecstatic cinema. Nia DaCosta’s film reimagines Henrik Ibsen’s 1891 classic for a modern audience with both reverence and defiance. It is a lush, psychologically charged portrait of repression and rebellion, anchored by a breathtaking performance from Tessa Thompson. The result is a film that vibrates with tension—between beauty and decay, between intellect and instinct, between the roles women are forced to play and the identities they ache to claim. The story follows Hedda Gabler (Thompson), the brilliant and manipulative daughter ****, whose marriage to the earnest yet unimaginative George Tesman (Tom Bateman) traps her in a world of genteel suffocation. Into her carefully constructed life walk Thea Clifton (Imogen Poots), Judge Brack (Nicholas Pinnock), and Eileen Lovborg (Nina Hoss), each representing the temptations and terrors of freedom. Hedda’s tragedy lies not in madness or malice, but in her inability to reconcile her sharp mind and restless soul with the rigid expectations of a patriarchal society. DaCosta’s direction breathes modern life into Ibsen’s text without sacrificing its timeless emotional weight. The world she creates is sumptuous and suffocating at once, wrapped in silks and candlelight, yet humming with discontent. Every choice, from the ornate interiors to the gauzy natural lighting, reinforces Hedda’s imprisonment inside her own elegance. The visual design becomes psychological architecture: the walls close in as Hedda’s emotional world collapses. What elevates "Hedda" beyond a mere period piece is the depth of Thompson’s performance. Over the past decade, she has become one of the most versatile and fearless actresses of her generation, moving seamlessly from the understated melancholy of Passing to the romantic idealism of Sylvie’s Love to the fierce pride of Creed. Here, she synthesizes all of those qualities into something new: a woman whose poise conceals an unrelenting ache to live freely. Her Hedda is not cold but wounded; not cruel but cornered. Every flicker of her gaze and tightening of her jaw tells a story of intellect at war with conformity. Thompson allows us to feel both the grandeur and futility of Hedda’s rebellion. Among the supporting cast, Imogen Poots gives Thea an open-hearted sincerity that makes her both a mirror and a foil to Hedda’s cynicism. Nicholas Pinnock’s Judge Brack exudes quiet menace, a man who understands power all too well, while Nina Hoss imbues Lovborg with a tragic dignity that deepens the emotional undercurrents of the story. Together, they create a web of attraction, envy, and moral ambiguity that feels immediate and alive. DaCosta, working from her own adaptation, understands that Hedda is not simply a story about gender but about control, the control of art, image, and destiny. Her direction is assured and painterly, with compositions that evoke the stillness of Vermeer but pulse with modern vitality. The camera lingers just long enough to catch the tremor beneath the surface, the unspoken collapse of a woman who cannot breathe in the life she has built. The collaboration between DaCosta and Thompson continues to be one of the most fascinating creative partnerships in contemporary cinema. Like Scorsese and De Niro or Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan or Jeff Nichols and Michael Shannon, theirs is a dialogue between vision and embodiment, between a filmmaker who constructs worlds and an actor who fills them with soul. In Hedda, their chemistry achieves something rare: a portrait of despair so finely tuned that it becomes strangely exhilarating to watch. If the film has a flaw, it lies in its pacing. DaCosta’s fidelity to Ibsen’s dialogue occasionally bogs down the rhythm, trapping the viewer in scenes that feel too stage-bound. But even in these moments, the film’s emotional resonance never dissipates. The script may speak in the language of the past, but DaCosta’s camera translates it into a universal tongue: yearning. Ultimately, "Hedda" is not just a retelling of Ibsen’s play; it is an excavation of its soul. It asks what it means to be seen yet misunderstood, to be loved yet confined, to possess brilliance yet lack freedom. It’s a story about a woman standing at the threshold of modernity, too alive for the life she has been given. Tessa Thompson delivers a master class in restraint and revelation, crafting a Hedda who is hauntingly contemporary. Her every movement feels like an act of resistance against a world that insists she stay still. DaCosta matches her stride for stride, crafting a film that is as emotionally devastating as it is visually elegant. Together, they turn Ibsen’s masterpiece into a mirror, one that still reflects us today.
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Nov 4, 2025
As the title suggests, this is a re-imagining of the Ibsen classic, but the only elements from writer/director Nia DaCosta’s version are the basic bones of the plot (and much of that has been reworked). This version takes place on a fabulous estate during one long elaborate party. Tessa Thompson is magnetic in the title role, while Nana Hoss matches her dramatic power as the love/hate interest. DaCosta has created a decadent world where everything is presented in grand operatic style with side glances, furtive encounters and epic emotions. It’s to the point where she’s pushed reality into melodrama in a very artificial way. While the final scenes are the film’s most powerful, the extended shots and long pauses make this more an experiment in stylistic presentation than an examination of the story’s emotional power.
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Nov 3, 2025
Tentativa de emular algo sofisticado, ainda mais trazendo o tema da lesbianidade, mas é de forma tão higiênica e classuda, que soa medroso. Um roteiro de dar sono, com cenários requintados e produção de arte convincente (ao menos), piorado pelas atuações em piloto automático. Fraco.
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Awards
Astra Creative Arts Awards
• 3 Nominations
Gotham Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Astra Film Awards
• 2 Nominations
