Hamlet
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Movie Reviews of Hamlet
Movie Review: Hawke's Show
Summary: 5 Stars
This version of Hamlet has some intriguing new staging, and some innovative adaptations to modern day life (the bit with the nunnery speech on the answering machine is brilliant), but what will make this a classic of modern film interpreting classic art is the central performance of the film.
At first, perhaps Ethan Hawke doesn't seem like the right choice for Hamlet. He has always been a competent, even likable actor of the gen x variety who has never really done anything of weight or levity. But at second glance, he is the perfect choice, after playing a host of different brooding philosophical young men contemplating life and death (Reality Bites, A Midnight Clear). He seems to have been taylor made for the part. He is brooding, yet subtle. He is a man of action, but a man who needs reason for his action. He makes the character of Hamlet relevant to twentysomething Americans who may not have connected with the Brannagh Hamlet.
Movie Review: Great Adaptation
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie was great. Setting Hamlet in a Fortune 500 company (the Denmark corporation) was brilliant. Almereyda's cleverness was illustrated not only by keeping the film modern while using Shakespeare's 17th century language but also by using modern sights to transmit some of the same ideas as the original play. Having the famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy in the action section of Blockbuster was ingenious because it points out Hamlet's inner struggle with action versus thought, a major theme in the play. I also thought that Shakespeare's language was not as large of a barrier to understanding the movie as some would make it out to be. I felt that the lines were fairly easy to understand and were demonstrated by the action quite well. Overall, I thought the movie followed the play quite well, and it should be enjoyed by bothShakespeare fans and those who are new to Shakespeare.Movie Review: All the rest is silence...
Summary: 5 Stars
And sometimes that is all you need. Never has a film been made of Hamlet, but normally a "stage" version put on film or so overacted that you feel like it should be on stage. For the first time Hamlet gets the feel of the modern world he has been missing. Ethan Hawke's filmmaker Prince shows how Hamlet still lives and breaths as the eternal everyman. The Ophelia of Julia Stiles is a masterpiece and her thinking of a watery grave during the "talk of maddness" scene is one of my favorites. "The Mousetrap" film, the club scene with R&G, and the use of modern tools like faxs and phones shows this story to hold as true today as it did the first time it played. Modern, fresh and transendant are the words that best describe this film. A must have for any collecter of the works of Shakespeare and great films!Movie Review: A wonderfully creative and accessible 'Hamlet'
Summary: 5 Stars
A terrific updating, using Shakespeare's language, but set in modern
corporate New York City. Beautifully shot, on a shockingly low budget
for it's look, with amazing use of New York locations.
Hawke is very good, and most of the rest of the cast, including Bill Murray (to my
surprise, doing Shakespeare), Kyle MacLachlan, and Diane Venora are first rate.
More important this is a re-telling that really uses the film medium,
and makes us re-think a classic in a new way, while being terrifically
entertaining along the way. It makes the simple humanity and complex
ideas under the Shakespearian poetry as clear as any production I've
ever seen, on stage or film.
Obviously controversial, and not for purists, but well worth seeing to
decide for yourself.
Movie Review: Truly a masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
While some people may have a beef with the setting of this movie (for example, the "to be or not to be" speech in a Blockbuster store), I must disagree. The concrete and steel city provides a marvellous backdrop for Hamlet's brooding. Most important, this was the first time I've seen an Ophelia who's believable and understandable, and I've seen at least four versions of "Hamlet." The ending was abrupt and startling, especially for those who are familiar with the story -- but it worked. It was able to surprise me and still not seem like carving up Shakespeare. And the acting was superb! The characters could have been in modern New York, yet Shakespeare's words didn't seem awkward in their mouths. Ethan Hawke is the perfect brooding prince, and Horatio was made into a memorable character.