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Review by Susan Granger
3½ stars out of 4
One of the elements that make Shakespeare's plays so amazing
is that they can be adapted and interpreted in so many different
ways. Filmmaker Michael Almereyda's contemporary version, set in
corporate Manhattan, stars Ethan Hawke as the morose Hamlet, a
scruffy, self-pitying Gen-X wannabe video-maker, who loathes his
passionate mother Gertrude (Diane Venora) and shallow stepfather
Claudius (Kyle McLachlan) for conspiring to murder his
father. Paranoia is the theme, augmented by depression, despondency,
and dementia - all running rampant at the Hotel Elsinore and the
Denmark Corporation. Far better than Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo and
Juliet," this visually stunning "Hamlet" is filled with intelligent,
inventive performances - not only the leads but Liev Schreiber's
furious Laertes, Julia Stiles's petulant East Village hippie Ophelia,
Sam Shepard's mysteriously remote Ghost (who evaporates into a Pepsi
machine) and, above all, Bill Murray's Polonius, advising "To thine
ownself be true...." The soliloquies have become inner musings,
except for "To be or not to be..." which Hamlet murmurs while browsing
in the Action section of a Blockbuster video store. But there are some
problems. First, you've got to be somewhat familiar with the
Shakespeare's original version to appreciate the nuances of this
unadorned one. Second, so much of the essential narrative has been
eliminated that confusion overload occasionally occurs. And, third,
the poetic passion and fear have been diluted by the onslaught of
high-tech gadgetry. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Hamlet" is
an audacious, admirable 8. It's a clever, consumer-oriented updating
of a great tragedy.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
