Hamlet (24 January 2000)
directed by Michael Almereyda
starring Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Sam Shepard, Diane Venora, Bill Murray, Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Karl Geary, Paula Malcomson, Steve Zahn, Dechen Thurman, Casey Affleck, Paul Bartel
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MPAA rating: Studio: Double A Films, Miramax Script: William Shakespeare, Michael Almereyda Music: Carter Burwell Running time: 112 minutes Suggested retail price: $9.99 (US) Tags: Crime; Drama; fencing; monarchy; murder; New York City; poisoning; Romance; Shakespeare; tragedy Tactical strength: [7/10]
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for some violence
Michael Almereyda creates an interesting adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet by setting the tragedy in modern-day New York City. As the movie starts, we attend a press conference in the Hotel Elsinor where Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan) announces that he has taken over as King/C.E.O. of the Denmark corporation and has married Gertrude (Diane Venora). Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) attends the press conference and films the proceedings on a portable video recorder. Hamlet has an obsession with video. We see most of his soliloquies as black and white playback on his portable video player, and whenever we see Hamlet's apartment in the Hotel Elsinor, he has one or more video screens playing. Later in the film, instead of Claudius's court attending a play, they attend a screening of a film collage Hamlet has made showing the poisoning of a father figure.
Although Almereyda updates the time and setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Almereyda keeps the Elizabethan dialogue. This creates some of the best interpretive moments for the film, where the new setting gives interesting twists to the action in the play. For example, we first see Hamlet's school friends Rosencrantz (Steve Zahn) and Guildenstern (Dechen Thurman) in a strip club, and we get a sense that these boys have done some heavy partying in the past and know each other quite well. This heightened familiarity adds to the sense of betrayal later when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern throw in with Claudius and escort Hamlet to England to have Hamlet killed.
All the actors do a good job at delivering the Elizabethan lines with a modern pace and intonation, with one notable exception: Ethan Hawke. For some reason, Hawke's delivery just doesn't fit with the delivery of the rest of the cast. Perhaps Almereyda did this intentionally to set Hamlet apart from the rest of the characters, but the effect doesn't set Hamlet apart as much as it makes Hawke look like a second-rate actor among an otherwise excellent troupe. Some of the best delivery comes from the scenes with Polonious (Bill Murray), Laertes (Liev Schreiber), and Ophelia (Julia Stiles).
Throughout the film, we see panoramic views of New York from the many windows in the Hotel Elsinor. The background, even when brightly lit, appears blue-grey and creates the same bleak felling that stone castle walls serve in other versions of Hamlet. Even the interior shots have very little color. We see lots of chrome, cement, white walls, and water. And when characters die, we get a shot of a high-altitude airplane leaving a contrail in an otherwise empty blue sky.
Almereyda makes some other interesting changes in his version. For example, although we see the gravedigger preparing a grave, we don't get Hamlet's "Alas, poor Yorick . . ." soliloquy. Almereyda also give a new twist to Gertrude's character at the end. In this version, she realizes that Claudius intends to kill Hamlet with the poisoned wine, and she drinks the poison in an self-sacrificing attempt to warn Hamlet of the venom in the drink. This interpretation almost seems to redeem Gertrude and "leave her to Heaven" as the Ghost (Sam Shepard) has required of Hamlet.
Overall, Almereyda has created an interesting interpretation of Hamlet. I don't think that this version with its modern setting brings too many young people to an appreciation of Shakespeare, but for those of us who have liked Shakespeare all along, it gives us some new ways of looking at a classic.
