# Hamlet (2000/I)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    HAMLET
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  **

How to stage the classic "To be or not to be" soliloquy has to be one of the key issues for any director bold, or foolish, enough to attempt to mount a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Michael Almereyda, a relatively obscure writer/director, who did TWISTER (no, not that TWISTER, but a comedy starring Suzy Amis) and little else, chooses a Blockbuster video store for the setting. Among a hundred copies of LOST IN SPACE, Hamlet delivers, mumbles to be more precise, his classic lines. This proves an apt metaphor since Almereyda's direction appears completely lost in space.

Modern adaptations can be audacious and invigorating retellings of Shakespearean stories as Baz Luhrmann proved with his ROMEO + JULIET. In contrast, Almereyda starts with and a killer cast and a promising premise (he moves the story to New York City, where the CEO of the multinational Denmark Corporation has just died), but he doesn't seem to know what to do next. Scenes are staged almost randomly without consideration for what impact the setting will make. Were it not for the Bard's marvelous words and Carter Burwell's great dramatic music, the film would not be worth anyone's while.

Liev Schreiber and Kyle MacLachlan give nice performance as Laertes and Claudius. Julia Stiles, an extremely likable actress who has had the misfortune to have starred in a long string of bad teen comedies, is out of her league as Ophelia, reminding one of a high school student who gets a chance to play with professional thespians.

And then we come to Ethan Hawke as the lead character, Hamlet. Hawke can be the master of the spoken word, as he was in BEFORE SUNRISE, but he is also given to empty posturing, as he was in SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS. He comes across as surprisingly bland this time. Underplaying almost every scene, he broods and ponders but rarely puts any life into his character. With a scraggly beard, dirty, unkempt hair, an old, knit aviator cap and grungy clothes, he looks like some street person who is there to gain our sympathy. He doesn't appear or act like the lead.

In a movie that is more cutesy than compelling, Bill Murray, as Polonius, gives the most intriguing performance of the lot. With constant comedic overtones to his every word, his is the only performance that really comes alive. His approach doesn't always work, but at least he suggests some reason for the play's modern adaptation other than "we could, so we did."

Kenneth Branagh brought in his HAMLET at 4 hours. Michael Almereyda's version, at half that length, feels much longer.

The saving grace is that mediocre Shakespeare (and I'm not counting those adaptations that borrow only the story but not the dialog) is still Shakespeare. Yes, this HAMLET is an unenergetic misfire, but the words are there to savor, nevertheless.

HAMLET runs 1:57. It is rated R for some violence and would be fine for teenagers.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

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