The Bard on Wall
Street
FILM: Hamlet
DIRECTOR: Michael Almereyda
STARRING: Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan
GRADE: A-
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TO THINE OWN SKI CAP BE TRUE: HAMLET (ETHAN HAWKE) HAS ISSUES WITH GERTRUDE
(DIANE VENORA) AND CLAUDIUS (KYLE MACLACHLAN) IN HAMLET.
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Ethan Hawke has never challenged Leonardo DiCaprio's following among teenage
girls, and for that reason, Michael Almereyda's current modern dress version of
Hamlet likely will not rival Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Miami Vice-style
film production of Romeo and Juliet. And that's monumentally too bad,
because this is a superb Hamlet, proving once again the timeless
relevance of Shakespeare's themes.
In this production, with the poet's language intact (though artfully
abridged), the action has been moved from Scandinavia to Manhattan. The elder
Hamlet (Sam Shepard), longtime CEO of the Denmark Corporation, has been found
dead in his penthouse digs at the fabulous Hotel Elsinore. Now his giddy widow,
Gertrude (Diane Venora), almost girlishly in love, has married Hamlet's
handsome brother Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan). And Claudius has taken the reins
as Denmark's CEO with the same unseemly speed with which he's moved into his
former sister-in-law's bed. Polished and dashing, a master of public relations,
Claudius quickly dispatches a voracious corporate raider named Fortinbras
(Casey Affleck) to consolidate his position as master of this particular
universe. None of which sits too well with troubled, tousled Gen X Hamlet Jr.
(Hawke), who rushes home from his university film studies in England only to
find everything changed and his father's shade whispering demands for
vengeance.
Most of this works smashingly well, with a few exceptions. The very end
of the production that preserves the fencing duel and the poisoned cup of wine
feels rushed and inadequately re-imagined. And I think few would have minded
had Almereyda substituted the word "boss" for the (here) jarring "king." The
filmmaker should have presumed that strict Shakespearean constructionists were
going to gripe anyway, as they have. Those two minor complaints aside, however,
Almereyda elicits terrific performances from all involved. Hawke's glowering,
depressed, suicidal, immature Hamlet is right on the money. And I vigorously
applaud the choices the director has made with Polonius (an outstanding Bill
Murray) and his family. Polonius often is reduced to foolishness in other
interpretations of the story, but here he's treated with dignity, a kind and
loving father who is devoted to his children. Comparably, Almereyda has
eschewed the implications of an incestuous connection that often attend the
staging of the relationship between Laertes (Liev Schreiber) and Ophelia (Julia
Stiles). Here, brother and sister simply love each other, and Laertes naturally
is concerned about his sister's distress over her cruel recent treatment by
Hamlet.
By depicting their relationships as healthy and normal, the tragedy
of their needless deaths is heightened, and Hamlet's irresponsible culpability
is underscored. Yes, Claudius is evil. Yes, Gertrude is a fool. But in this
production, Almereyda makes clear what is sometimes obscured: Hamlet is a
lethal idler, quick to whine, slow to focus. On his way to accomplishing almost
nothing whatsoever, a lot of innocent people are sacrificed.
Bravo, one and all.
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