Reviews

Here is the first film version of Hamlet to come along in modern New York. The director's use of New York is fun to watch for this native New Yorker, although how a limo can quickly move from 42nd St. between Broadway and Eighth Avenue to 48th St. and Sixth Avenue is beyond me.

But asisde from that, all we care about when we see Hamlet is how is the text handled, by both the director and the cast. The director, Michael Almereyda, has cut into the script and most of the film runs surprising lean for something that runs one hour, fifty-three minutes. His use of short films in the background, speaker phones, TV's and the like run the gambit from ingeneous to "Give me a BREAK!"

The casting however is inconsitent, for which we can certainly blame the director. Ethan Hawke, in the title role, has drive and energy. But if anybody remembers the TV show "The Critic", when they had Keanu Reeves doing Hamlet, then you know what I'm thinking. The words "Dude" and "Whoa" seems ready to break into Hawke's speeches at anytime. The complexity is replaced by a whiny "I'm in pain, but I'm cool" attitude for the bulk of the film and it doesn't really work. The mumbling of at least a fourth of his lines doesn't help either. He works better in silence, brooding.

The silence works even better for Julia Styles as Ophelia. When quiet, the pain of abandonment and loss is heartfelt. Then she opens her mouth, and the lack of a developed character as well as an appalling lack of command of Shakespeare's words is obvious. Ophelia, never mind getting thee to a nunnery, get thee "Beverly Hills, 90210", GO!

Bill Murray veers form earnestness to his Lounge Singer's act from "SNL" when doing Polonius. I know the role was suppose to be for comic relief. But after a while, everything Murray says is funny- intenionally or otherwise.

Kyle McLaughlin, as Claudius, doesn't fare much better. There is little distinction in his line readings, and in the end, he just comes off as a one-trick pony. Diane Verona is marginally better as Gertrude. The attitude is there, as is the pain, but her line readings lack a freshness to them.

The standouts are Sam Sheppard as the Ghost, Steve Zahn and Dechen Thurman as Rosencrnatz & Guildenstern, and especially Liev Schrieber as Laertes. Schrieber in paricularly as the energy, clearity, and believabilty that makes you wonder what if he played Hamlet instead of Schrieber. We probably would have had a better movie.

The film starts strongly with intense combat sequences that shows Director William Friedkin still has cinematic bite. In fact every scene that doesn't take place in America jolts you and almost puts you in the line of fire. The threat of harm at every second is evident, and the energy goes away in almost every scene that takes place on U.S. soil. Tommy Lee Jones gave us vulnerability and openess; a nice contrast to what we would have been stuck with in a typical Hollywood film-a Superman for all occasions. How refreshing. The rest of the cast holds up very well(how nice to see the lovely Anne Archer working again), but is it possible to have anyone more two-dimensional than Bruce Greenwood's villian? All he needs is a mustache to twirl and railroad tracks to tie Sam Jackson down on. I don't really blame Greenwood-I blame the lazy screenwriters. The courtroom scenes seem fresh-if you've never seen A Few Good Men, The Caine Mutiny or ANY other film or tv show that had a courtroom in it. And as for the way the Jones-Jackson relationship was written-any comparison to the Lethal Weapon series or The Last Boy Scout et. all, is purely coincedental. YEAH RIGHT! In the end, you care about the people,just don't think to hard. God knows the writers didn't. For a lazy afternoon, you can still get something out of it.