Running time: 111 minutes
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Diane Venora, Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Bill Murray, Karl Geary, Steve Zahn, Dechen
Thurman, Sam Shepard
Rating 5 out of 10
There is something rotten in Denmark Corporation. The President (Sam Shepard) is dead - killed in highly suspicious circumstances - and his ambitious brother-in-law Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan) has announced his ascension to the corporate throne at a hastily arranged press conference.
Aspiring indie director Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) returns from film school to grieve for his late father, and is shocked and dismayed to learn that Claudius and his mother Gertrude (Diane Venora) have married, barely two months since the tragedy.
Plunged into despair, Hamlet seeks solace in his on-off relationship with budding photographer Ophelia (Julia Stiles) but is rebuffed by her disapproving father Polonius (Bill Murray) and brother Laertes (Liev Schreiber).
The young film-maker is momentarily lifted from his dark mood when loyal friend Horatio (Karl Geary) confides that the ghost of pater has been seen wandering the corridors of a nearby office block.
The spectre soon visits Hamlet at his swanky Manhattan pad and relates its chilling secret: that Claudius did indeed poison the president. Determined to avenge his father's murder, Hamlet makes a film alluding to Claudius's heinous crime, consequently setting in motion a chain of events resulting in Polonius's murder, sweet Ophelia's suicide, and a duel for honour betwixt vengeful sons Hamlet and Laertes.
Director Michael Almereyda uses Orson Welles's seminal Macbeth (completed in just 21 days) as his inspiration, shooting his modern day Hamlet fast and cheaply on grainy 16mm.
More a charcoal sketch of the play than a full-on adaptation, this new version feeds off the director's nervous energy and the constant buzz of the Big Apple. The hi-tech world of lap-tops, CCTV surveillance cameras and the Internet provides a potent backdrop for the Bard's bloodthirsty tale of betrayal and revenge, and nicely taps into Hamlet's growing paranoia.
Unfortunately, Almereyda doesn't always marry his contemporary setting with Shakespeare's prose. For example, he inexplicably chooses to stage the "to be or not to be'' soliloquy in Hamlet's local Blockbuster store, with the grungy and dishevelled hero delivering lines as he wanders the aisles.
Occasionally, there are flashes of brilliance, like when Hamlet amends his own death warrant (in the form of an e-mail) to seal the fates of Rosencrantz (Steve Zahn) and Guildenstern (Dechen Thurman).
Performances vary wildly. Venora and Schreiber have both performed Shakespeare on stage and their experience pays dividends, the former marvellously overwrought as an increasingly unhinged mother and wife, the latter spitting venom when Hamlet brings about the deaths of his father and beloved sister. Stiles is somewhat under-used as Ophelia but highlights her character's heartbreaking innocence, while Murray is appalling, almost playing his role for comedy (he seems to be smirking in virtually every scene).
The big disappointment is Hawke whose lack of charisma and fire in his belly relegates the titular character to a pathetic, unshaven wimp. There's no obvious suggestion of Hamlet's cunning and his talents as a film-maker are dubious to say the least, if his effort to unmask Claudius as his father's killer is anything to go by.
Aspiring indie director Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) returns from film school to grieve for his late father, and is shocked and dismayed to learn that Claudius and his mother Gertrude (Diane Venora) have married, barely two months since the tragedy.
Plunged into despair, Hamlet seeks solace in his on-off relationship with budding photographer Ophelia (Julia Stiles) but is rebuffed by her disapproving father Polonius (Bill Murray) and brother Laertes (Liev Schreiber).
The young film-maker is momentarily lifted from his dark mood when loyal friend Horatio (Karl Geary) confides that the ghost of pater has been seen wandering the corridors of a nearby office block.
The spectre soon visits Hamlet at his swanky Manhattan pad and relates its chilling secret: that Claudius did indeed poison the president. Determined to avenge his father's murder, Hamlet makes a film alluding to Claudius's heinous crime, consequently setting in motion a chain of events resulting in Polonius's murder, sweet Ophelia's suicide, and a duel for honour betwixt vengeful sons Hamlet and Laertes.
Director Michael Almereyda uses Orson Welles's seminal Macbeth (completed in just 21 days) as his inspiration, shooting his modern day Hamlet fast and cheaply on grainy 16mm.
More a charcoal sketch of the play than a full-on adaptation, this new version feeds off the director's nervous energy and the constant buzz of the Big Apple. The hi-tech world of lap-tops, CCTV surveillance cameras and the Internet provides a potent backdrop for the Bard's bloodthirsty tale of betrayal and revenge, and nicely taps into Hamlet's growing paranoia.
Unfortunately, Almereyda doesn't always marry his contemporary setting with Shakespeare's prose. For example, he inexplicably chooses to stage the "to be or not to be'' soliloquy in Hamlet's local Blockbuster store, with the grungy and dishevelled hero delivering lines as he wanders the aisles.
Occasionally, there are flashes of brilliance, like when Hamlet amends his own death warrant (in the form of an e-mail) to seal the fates of Rosencrantz (Steve Zahn) and Guildenstern (Dechen Thurman).
Performances vary wildly. Venora and Schreiber have both performed Shakespeare on stage and their experience pays dividends, the former marvellously overwrought as an increasingly unhinged mother and wife, the latter spitting venom when Hamlet brings about the deaths of his father and beloved sister. Stiles is somewhat under-used as Ophelia but highlights her character's heartbreaking innocence, while Murray is appalling, almost playing his role for comedy (he seems to be smirking in virtually every scene).
The big disappointment is Hawke whose lack of charisma and fire in his belly relegates the titular character to a pathetic, unshaven wimp. There's no obvious suggestion of Hamlet's cunning and his talents as a film-maker are dubious to say the least, if his effort to unmask Claudius as his father's killer is anything to go by.
