- Directed by Sean Mathias
- Written by William Shakespeare
- Stars Ian McKellen, Jenny Seagrove, Jonathan Hyde, Steven Berkoff, Francesca Annis
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 57 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qka_CNhm4BY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The trailer for this makes it look more thrilling and bordering on horror than it actually was. It’s not awful, but we kept thinking it should have been better than it was. Age, race, and gender were swapped around some in the casting, most notably with 84-year-old Sir Ian McKellen playing young Hamlet. He’s actually a little mush-mouthed and hard to understand at times. It’s set in modern times, in a theater mostly, which was kind of interesting. Overall we thought it was a little on the slog side, not as good as other productions we’ve seen.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s 2020, and theaters across the globe have been closed. Hamlet, in a black and white world, looks up at the closed theater, and he doesn’t look happy. As he walks away, someone on a nearby rooftop watches him in binoculars. He finds a way inside, where everything comes to life in color as credits roll.
We return to a funeral which also seems to be a wedding proposal and ceremony all in one. Hamlet’s father, the king, has died, and his uncle has taken over as king.
Another student, Horatio, comes to visit Hamlet. He thinks he’s seen the king in the middle of the night; a vision. Hamlet wants to stay up late and see that tonight.
Laertes is getting ready for a show, when his father comes for a visit. Ophelia is there as well, and he wants to know what’s up. She says Hamlet is romantically interested in her.
Horatio and Hamlet see the ghost of his father outside that night. The ghost calls it “a murder most foul,” and Hamlet swears revenge. He blames Hamlet’s uncle Claudius. After, Hamlet swears his friends to secrecy.
Ophelia tells her father about a strange man she encountered. The father reads Hamlet’s love letter to Ophelia to the new king, Claudius, and queen, Gertrude. He doesn’t much like Hamlet.
Hamlet meets up with Ophelia later, and she thanks him for his gift and letter which she must return. He denies sending them, but she knows. Her father, Polonius, and Claudius listen from the shadows.
Claudius has dinner with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet’s friends. He wants them to spy on Hamlet to see why he’s been acting so strangely.
Meanwhile, Hamlet and Polonius have a talk; Hamlet wants Polonius to think he’s gone insane. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show up, and he knows someone sent them.
Polonius and Hamlet watch the rehearsal for a play, and Polonius mutters, “This is too long” [Oh, yeah it was, I was already checking my watch]. Afterward, they put on the play for the king and queen and the rest of the characters.
Turns out, Hamlet’s play is about someone assassinating the king and taking his place. The murderers look suspiciously like the current king and queen. When called on it, Hamlet says he’s reproducing something that happened in Vienna. The king gets angry and storms out.
Hamlet tells us he could kill the king right now, but he’ll wait for a better time. He goes to talk to his mother and stabs Polonius, thinking it was Claudius. He argues with his mother until his father’s ghost shows up again, but Gertrude doesn’t see anything. She swears she doesn’t know anything about his father’s murder.
Gertrude tells all to Claudius, who sees Hamlet as a threat now. He sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to catch Hamlet in disposing of Polonius’s body. The king wants Hamlet exiled to England, where he’ll be killed.
Ophelia sings, terribly out of tune, before talking to the king. (I honestly could understand the words of her song better than McKellan’s speeches). She learns of the king’s plot to have Hamlet killed and wants to send him a warning, but it’s too late. Instead, he’s captured by pirates.
The queen freaks out, hearing that Ophelia has killed herself. Hamlet returns just as the funeral is in progress. Hamlet yells at Laertes, who thinks this is all Hamlet’s fault. The king talks to Laertes and puts him up to killing Hamlet in a duel. Hamlet is eager to accept, but Horatio warns him that it’s a trap.
Hamlet and Laertes have a fencing tournament. The king offers Hamlet drugged wine, but Hamlet doesn’t take it. The queen takes the drink and chugs it instead. Hamlet and Laertes fight, and he gets slashed with his own poisoned blade after slicing Hamlet. The queen dies. Laertes dies. Hamlet knows he’s going to die soon, so he stabs the king AND makes him drink the poison.
Everyone dies, leaving Horatio standing on a stage full of corpses.
Commentary
The trailers make this seem very much like a horror-centric portrayal of the classic play, which is why we chose to watch it. It is set in the modern age, mostly in and around a theater. There’s a ghost, and murder, but the film really isn’t as “horrific” as the trailer makes it look.
The character of Hamlet is supposed to be thirty years old. Ian McKellan, as good as he is, doesn’t quite pull it off at 84. Honestly, it looked like he could have used a stunt double just for doing long-winded speeches a few times. Honestly, I thought he’d be better in a role like this– he mumbled a lot. If you know the play word-for-word, it’s probably fine, but don’t go into this expecting to understand the language. Also, there are no subtitles, at least not in the version we screened.
Why is Francesca Annis, a woman, playing the ghost of Hamlet’s father? Couldn’t they find a male actor who knew this “obscure” part? I get it, “blind casting” is a long-standing “theater thing,” but still, this is a film, it’s not theater. Laertes, with another female actor, is referred to as “him” and “a true gentleman” several times. I guess it’s the same idea of casting an 84-year-old man as a thirty-year-old.
Horror Guy Kevin thought that it was thoroughly acceptable for Laertes to be cast as a woman of color here, quite interesting in fact, but they should have fully embraced that. They continue to call Laertes “him” and “sir” instead of regendering the role completely. The same thing with a male military character later who has a woman in the role.
I’ve seen similar modern retellings of Shakespeare’s plays in the past. I’ve always wondered about the sense in setting the stories in the modern day, while leaving the 400-year-old language unchanged. It’d be far more accessible the other way around, a period-piece with modern language. I guess it wouldn’t “be Shakespeare” anymore. I could live with that.
As for setting the entire production inside a theater, that just reeks of pretentiousness. I would have enjoyed this infinitely more if it had simply included subtitles. Then again, maybe not, but it would have made it far more easy to follow.