469 - Hamlet, United States, 2000. Dir. Michael Almereyda.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

469 - Hamlet, United States, 2000.  Dir. Michael Almereyda.

Bill Murray as Polonius.

I am in!

But then, I was already in.

You had me at Ethan Hawke.

Of course Ethan Hawke should play Hamlet.  He is one of our finest actors.  With just the right intelligence and sensitivity for the role.

And Steve Zahn works great for Rosencrantz.

And Jeffrey Wright as the Gravedigger.

(But wait.  Since when did Bob Dylan write William Shakespeare lyrics?  I mean, he did just win the Nobel Prize for literature, but "All Along the Watchtower"?  I had no idea it was a Shakespearean soliloquy.)

Kyle MacLachlan as Claudius.  Liev Schreiber as Laertes.  Julia Stiles, back from O, as Ophelia.

Sam Shepard as the Ghost.  You bet.

And Diane Venora as Gertrude.  Absolutely.

Let me say something about Diane.  I met her at the Directors Guild at a screening once, and I thought she was great.  She was on a panel discussing another movie, and afterwards I had the great pleasure of talking to her.  I am a big fan of Michael Mann's Heat (1995), so I raved over that a bit, and then we discussed some of her work.

Have you heard of Diane Venora?

If not, get to know her.  You will appreciate her fine acting chops.  She went to Juilliard on a full scholarship, and she did a lot of stage work, including playing Hamlet herself in a 1983 gender reversal.  It is amazing how many great roles she has done and yet her name in some circles flies below the radar.

Here is a partial list: The Cotton Club (1984), Ironweed (1987), Bird (1988), Heat (1995), Surving Picasso (1996), Romeo + Juliet (1996) (yes, she is also Lady, or Gloria, Capulet), The Jackal (1997), True Crime (1999), The Insider (1999).  There are plenty more.

This one is set in New York City in the year 2000.

Conversation by the rooftop swimming pool.

Soliloquy in a Blockbuster Video.  In the Action section.

Showdown at the Guggenheim.

Communication through technology.  Polaroid.  Handycam.  Wire tap.  Answering machine.  Closed-circuit.  Big screen.  Jumbotron.

The Denmark Corporation.  Hotel Elsinore.  Claudius the CEO.  Polonius the corporate attorney.  Fortinbras leading the corporate takeover.

The Mousetrap a short film directed by Hamlet, a film school student, consisting of compiled footage.

The Player King later a news anchor.  Fortinbras later in the news.

Hamlet's accidental killing of Polonius and his intentional revenge of Claudius not with a bare bodkin but with a cocked handgun.

The irony of the technology is that a film made to be contemporary is already of the past.  The cameras are big and clunky.  They are leaving messages on answering machines.  And Blockbuster Video.  What is that?

But the acting is solid all around.  And Almereyda has thought through things.

Check it out and see what you think.

It might just grow on you.

If nothing else, you can listen to Bill Murray himself advising you, "This above all, / To thine own self be true."