| | Kenneth Branagh's version of the mad Dane is monumental simply in putting every single line of Shakespeare's best play (:p) on the screen. It takes four hours, but he gets it done, and for that he has my great admiration.
Not only that, it's also done pretty darn well. Branagh himself, in the title role, speaks Shakespeare like a pro, of course, and pulls of both the hot and cold sides of the Black Prince quite well. He was quite wise in choosing seasoned Shakespeare veteran David Jacobi for the usurper, Claudius, and most of the other main characters do justice to their roles as well.
The massive list of famous actors in cameo roles deserves at least a quick mention as well. A few of these, such as Jack Lemmon as the soldier Marcellus, backfire badly, but by and large they bring great life and interest to the characters. I particularly enjoy Billy Crystal as the gravedigger, Charlton Heston as the Player King, and Robin Williams as Osric.
Now, having every word of the play in the script wouldn't mean much if they weren't intelligibly delivered, but fortunately, I'd say the movie gets about a 95% success rate in that regard. One or two actors are just generally unintelligible in a couple scenes, and then some of the main actors get so worked up in a few scenes that you just can't make out what they're saying, for which I blame too-adventurous directing. And then there are just the odd words here and there that you can't make out. If you're completely fluent in the play, I suppose that won't really be a problem for you, but I can't claim to be that well versed in it, so I had to keep (when watching the DVD version) skipping back, turning on subtitles, and watching bits again.
Branagh wanted to do things a little differently for this rendition, and his best and boldest move, I think, is taking the story out of its traditional medieval mustiness, and putting it in...eh...well I don't know, maybe the 1700s or so. Castle Elsinore is brilliant with white and gold interiors, lit with a crisp white, snowy Northern light. Costumes too are sharp and colorful, but not too gaudy. Without making it feel too modernized and mundane, this temporal setting still helps his Hamlet feel much sharper.
Branagh lets that sharpness come through in the way he delivers the lines, particularly the madcap ones, in which he contorts his mouth and vocal chords at times while acting the fool. Somehow he makes this work. Then there are strokes like placing Polonius in a bawdy setting in his talk with Reynaldo, and putting Claudius and Polonius behind a one-way mirror as Hamlet delivers his famous soliloquy. These bring out great drama in the scenes and dimensions in the characters.
Some of his innovative stagings work less well. He has a penchant for having people deliver their lines while laying on the ground, which can't but hurt their delivery. Kate Winslet's Ophelia gibbering about puffy-faced in a straightjacket is not a great scene, and did we really need all the cut-in footage of Hamlet and Ophelia getting it on?
While some of his tendencies in interpreting the lines annoy me, like having players stick around for a while even after calling each other away with "come" or a similar line, for the most part he suits actions to words well, and brings life to even the most tame scenes. Every now and then a line or movement will feel forced, but that's the great exception rather than the rule.
I love the language of this play like no other, and to hear it spoken entirely, dramatically, and intelligently is a great joy. I have a feeling I'll be watching this four hour marathon of poetry over many times. |
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