Hamlet * * * * * (out of five)
It's a hit! A very palpable hit! Kenneth Branagh has taken a bold gamble that there is an audience for a four hour, pack-a-lunch version of Hamlet. It has paid off. Here there's everything you could possibly want in a movie.
There's sex, revenge, lust, incest, passion, politics, deceit, cheating, conniving and murder, much, much murder. There's also a ghost who's bidding must be done before bodies litter the throne room of Elsinore castle and the final credits roll.
And this version, as daunting as it first might seem to be when you take your seat in the theater, keeps your eyes glued to the screen. With it's sweep and vision, this is epic movie-making on the grandest possible scale, with a mass of talent as lavish as England's gorgeous and stately Blenheim Palace which stands in for Hamlet's Danish Elsinore.
By seeing and hearing the entire Shakespeare text, moviegoers will get the complete story on film for the first time. Franco Zeffirelli's version with Mel Gibson may have been a broadsword-swinging treat, and Laurence Olivier's somewhat fey 1948 Hamlet had it's fans, but they are both Shakespeare-lite compared to this.
Branagh's view is the way Shakespeare's greatest play should be seen with all it's rich layers. Don't be surprised if you now feel just a little cheated by those other attempts at bringing Hamlet to the screen.
We realise what we all missed in previous films when directors cut scenes like those showing the invasion of Denmark by Norway's Fortinbras, an event which adds a political and historical element to the story that's often missing. And we've never been given the depth we're shown in Polonius as he sets Reynaldo off to investigate his son Laertes in France. Polonius is often played as a foolish pompous meddler, but here he's tougher and much more sanctimonious and hypocritical.
And while an explanation of the children's theater in London in Elizabethan times might seem eminently cuttable, it still adds another dimension to the film.
For those of you who have forgotten your Grade 11 English or who snoozed through it in the back row, here's a short synopsis of the story.
Hamlet is a prince of Denmark who continues to profoundly grieve over the death of his father and king, also named Hamlet. To make matters worse, his mother Gertrude has married Hamlet Jr.'s uncle Claudius who is now king, an act that doesn't sit well with her troubled Hamlet Jr. To him, the marriage is incest.
The story opens with the visitation of the Ghost of Hamlet Sr. who tells his son that he was murdered by Claudius. It is the son's duty to avenge the death.
Polonius is a court functionary who is the father of Laertes, a student who spends most of the time in France, and Ophelia, a young woman with whom Hamlet is in love.
It is not a match that Polonius feels is proper, and this causes no end of problems.
And when Hamlet begins acting just a little loonie, Polonius, Claudius and Gertrude all think it's because he's in love with Ophelia.
But there's more at work here than a lovesick prince, and it's all a plan hatched in Hamlet's fevered brain to get his revenge on Claudius. Along the way, he'll kill Polonius, which earns him the enmity of Laertes and helps drive Ophelia to suicide.
If Hamlet is not doomed already, and he most surely is, the return of Laertes seals it tight. And the fact that Fortinbras, the optimistic prince of Norway, is eyeing Denmark with greed doesn't help much.
The culminating scene, involving a duel between Laertes and Hamlet, involves poisoned drinks, swords with tips dipped in deadly venom and plenty of bloody death.
But enough of plot. Trust me, you'll understand it all, even without having to dig out that dog-eared Coles Notes booklet.
It helps, of course, that Branagh has assembled a surprisingly eclectic cast to make this film work so supremely well.
He has rounded up the usual suspects -- those who worked with him on his superb version of Shakespeare's Henry V- and he's added some extras, just as he did in the movie Much Ado About Nothing.
First, we'll deal with his pals. There's Brian Blessed turning in a suitably spooky bit of business as the ghost of Hamlet's father, and Nicholas Farrell, last seen in Branagh's A Midwinter's Tale, as Hamlet's pal Horatio.
Derek Jacobi, who was Chorus in Henry V, is sharp as shrewd Claudius, a man who's blend of ambition and lust for his brother's wife leads to his ruin.
Richard Briers, notable as Bardolph in Henry V, gives us a fresher and more complicated Polonius than we've ever seen before on screen, and Judi Dench, Henry V's Nell Quickly, gives us a cameo as Hecuba to John Gielgud's Priam.
Michael Maloney, who played Rosencrantz for Zeffirelli and the Dauphin in Branagh's Henry V, is exceptional as Laertes. Maloney makes us understand the depth of Laertes' anguish over the death of his father and the descent of his sister into madness and suicide. It leads him to be easy prey for the vicious and manipulative Claudius.
Newcomers to Shakespeare, and those Hollywood stars for which Branagh has always had a fondness, include Billy Crystal and Robin Williams as, respectively, the grave digger who pulls Yorick's skull from the earth, and Osric, the court attendant who hands out the swords in the final scene.
Both are as funny as you'd expect, but neither slip into goofy slapstick.
Charlton Heston, who has done the Bard before, is almost Moses-like as the Player King, and when he's on screen it's as if he's daring you to take your eyes off him.
Julie Christie, who has never done Shakespeare before, is remarkable as Gertrude, and Rufus Sewell's Fortinbras is a sinister force who casts a long, deep shadow over the story.
Also look for cameos from the likes of Gerard Depardieu as the servant Reynaldo, Richard Attenborough as the English ambassador and John Mills as Old Norway, the King of Denmark's rapacious neighbour.
Alas, only Jack Lemmon seems miscast as Marcellus, one of the palace guards. He's too old for the part, and speaks with an old man's voice. There is a sense of relief when his few scenes are over.
But that is a minor quibble given the power of this audacious and daring experiment in movie-making.
Do not miss it, it will be the fastest four hours you'll spend in a
long time.
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