Uhhhhhhhh.... well. I don't know what to say right now. I don't know why I spent 2 hours and £3.49 on this movie. Because somehow, someone took Shakespeare's Hamlet, a story that's usually considered pretty un-mess-up-able, and, well, messed it up.
Please note that this review contains spoilers.
Using Shakespeare's original 17th century script pretty much singlehandedly killed this movie. I mean, I know that Romeo + Juliet did the same thing, but the only reason that worked was because the film still felt sort of organic/rustic, and it still somehow fit the romantic tone of the original script. However, juxtaposing the play's winding monologues and soliloquies with modern skyscrapers and technology created such a jarring effect I wasn't able to focus on much else. You can't modernise everything BUT the script. And since the script wasn't changed, a lot of pretty questionable decisions were made attempting to stick as close to the story as possible. Ah, yes, let's include the To Be or Not To Be speech at a Blockbuster! And how about, yes, we keep the sword fight but get this: let's change it to fencing!
The thing is, script aside, if you tweaked a few small things this would have been a great movie. I liked the modern, neo-noir cinematography, and I think this would have worked great if they had just modernised the dialogue along with everyone else. There were some genuinely gorgeous moments in the film - Ophelia's death scene in the fountain, after several counts of ominous foreshadowing, worked beautifully. Honestly, I think it would work better if you watched this film on mute.
The acting was... uh. I mean, I can't really tell if the acting itself was bad or if it was the script that ruined it all. I think the strongest performance for sure came from Julia Stiles as Ophelia. Kyle MacLachlan was also good as Claudius, and Sam Shepard gave a brief, but memorable, performance as The Ghost. But the real problem was Ethan Hawke. The thing with Shakespeare is that you either can or can't do it, and I think that he was miscast. Now, I know that Ethan Hawke is a great actor (case in point: Gattaca), but I think that his performance here just fell flat. Again, maybe it was just the script distracting me, but he really wasn't a convincing lead.
In conclusion, don't watch this. If you do, watch it with the sound off. Just by looking through IMDb I can see that Hamlet, just like every other Shakespeare play, has been adapted a bajillion times, and I think this definitely falls at the lower end of the spectrum.
-Sasha.
Please note that this review contains spoilers.
Using Shakespeare's original 17th century script pretty much singlehandedly killed this movie. I mean, I know that Romeo + Juliet did the same thing, but the only reason that worked was because the film still felt sort of organic/rustic, and it still somehow fit the romantic tone of the original script. However, juxtaposing the play's winding monologues and soliloquies with modern skyscrapers and technology created such a jarring effect I wasn't able to focus on much else. You can't modernise everything BUT the script. And since the script wasn't changed, a lot of pretty questionable decisions were made attempting to stick as close to the story as possible. Ah, yes, let's include the To Be or Not To Be speech at a Blockbuster! And how about, yes, we keep the sword fight but get this: let's change it to fencing!
The thing is, script aside, if you tweaked a few small things this would have been a great movie. I liked the modern, neo-noir cinematography, and I think this would have worked great if they had just modernised the dialogue along with everyone else. There were some genuinely gorgeous moments in the film - Ophelia's death scene in the fountain, after several counts of ominous foreshadowing, worked beautifully. Honestly, I think it would work better if you watched this film on mute.
The acting was... uh. I mean, I can't really tell if the acting itself was bad or if it was the script that ruined it all. I think the strongest performance for sure came from Julia Stiles as Ophelia. Kyle MacLachlan was also good as Claudius, and Sam Shepard gave a brief, but memorable, performance as The Ghost. But the real problem was Ethan Hawke. The thing with Shakespeare is that you either can or can't do it, and I think that he was miscast. Now, I know that Ethan Hawke is a great actor (case in point: Gattaca), but I think that his performance here just fell flat. Again, maybe it was just the script distracting me, but he really wasn't a convincing lead.
In conclusion, don't watch this. If you do, watch it with the sound off. Just by looking through IMDb I can see that Hamlet, just like every other Shakespeare play, has been adapted a bajillion times, and I think this definitely falls at the lower end of the spectrum.
-Sasha.