Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit (2020) — watch online on iFILM — is a British fantasy comedy directed by Edward Hall, adapted from Noël Coward's 1941 stage play. Dan Stevens, Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, and Judi Dench lead a cast that clearly had fun with the material.

Novelist Charles invites flamboyant medium Madame Arcati (Dench) to dinner as research — and accidentally summons the ghost of his late first wife Elvira (Fisher). His current wife Ruth (Mann) is considerably less charmed by the reunion. Three people now share one house, two of them technically married to the same man, and everyone has a plan for Charles. Hall's film tilts lighter than Coward's original — the sharper edges of the play get softened in favour of visual comedy. Dench, though, does something no one else on screen can: she finds a gear between comic timing and genuine menace and stays there for the whole film. Stream Blithe Spirit online on iFILM.