This filmed version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of King Lear never does injustice to Shakespeare's great play ultimately lets as the universal tragedy it is, but the recorded production remains resolutely decent and rarely rises above that level.
Headliner Ian McKellen as Lear is consistently pretty good, but his performance is missing something that keeps him from the ranks of the greats in the role. He starts of brittle, feeble, and weak -- so the contrast with still-felt power of the once commanding king is not so keenly felt. Already tottering he has fewer places to go, and when he gets worked up he has a tendency to spit out his words, blubber, and become incomprehensible. Frances Barber and Monica Dolan are similarly somewhat one-dimensional in their portrayals of Goneril and Regan's villainy. Jonathan Hyde seems somewhat out of place in an odd performance as a Kent with many startled-seeming and some awkward deliveries.
Most memorable for me is the excellent choice of Sylvester McCoy in the role of the fool, who is goofy, wise, and melancholy. McCoy highlights the significance of the fool's choice to stay with Lear knowing his decline. I'm ambivalent on how necessary was the directorial choice to interpolate the scene of the fool's being hanged; at best it repeats information visually that we learn from Lear in the final scene, and at worst it removed ambiguity from it.
Ramola Garai also deserves praise as a very moving Cordelia, and William Gaunt, who begins as an unusually smooth and aristocratic Gloucester, making his later tortures the more affecting.
The whole film is shot in very monotonous dim lighting, making the intended locations of many scenes uncertain. I'm sure the intention was to disguise somewhat the studio-bound and stage-derived nature of the production and set an appropriately grim tone, but the lack of contrast quickly loses any good effect it might have.
There's nothing to point out here as incompetence and a few people stand out, but in all it is not the most memorable performance of Lear on record, and there are better ones on record.
Headliner Ian McKellen as Lear is consistently pretty good, but his performance is missing something that keeps him from the ranks of the greats in the role. He starts of brittle, feeble, and weak -- so the contrast with still-felt power of the once commanding king is not so keenly felt. Already tottering he has fewer places to go, and when he gets worked up he has a tendency to spit out his words, blubber, and become incomprehensible. Frances Barber and Monica Dolan are similarly somewhat one-dimensional in their portrayals of Goneril and Regan's villainy. Jonathan Hyde seems somewhat out of place in an odd performance as a Kent with many startled-seeming and some awkward deliveries.
Most memorable for me is the excellent choice of Sylvester McCoy in the role of the fool, who is goofy, wise, and melancholy. McCoy highlights the significance of the fool's choice to stay with Lear knowing his decline. I'm ambivalent on how necessary was the directorial choice to interpolate the scene of the fool's being hanged; at best it repeats information visually that we learn from Lear in the final scene, and at worst it removed ambiguity from it.
Ramola Garai also deserves praise as a very moving Cordelia, and William Gaunt, who begins as an unusually smooth and aristocratic Gloucester, making his later tortures the more affecting.
The whole film is shot in very monotonous dim lighting, making the intended locations of many scenes uncertain. I'm sure the intention was to disguise somewhat the studio-bound and stage-derived nature of the production and set an appropriately grim tone, but the lack of contrast quickly loses any good effect it might have.
There's nothing to point out here as incompetence and a few people stand out, but in all it is not the most memorable performance of Lear on record, and there are better ones on record.