HAMLET [ 1/2]
Intelligent, well-acted, all-American version of the Shakespeare tragedy. Running time: 187 minutes. Not rated (adult themes, violence). At the Screening Room.
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YOU can tell this is a smart take on “Hamlet” from the first wordless opening shots, including one that shows Polonius (Roscoe Lee Browne) as a rather sinister bureaucrat burning documents that might be damaging for Claudius, the new King (Jamey Sheridan), and one that deftly reveals the erotic heat shared by Gertrude (Blair Brown) and the usurper.
Watching such an intelligent, extremely well-acted production after the crass debacle that was the Michael Almerayda/Ethan Hawke techno-slacker “Hamlet” is a particular pleasure.
Co-directors Campbell Scott (who also stars) and Eric Simonson ensure that you never forget that “Hamlet” is a ghost story as well as a Renaissance political thriller.
By setting the tragedy in the late 19th century (the film is shot mostly in a decaying, castle-like mansion on Long Island), they can convey the formality and claustrophobia of court life while emphasizing the amazing modernity of the play – an emphasis fortified by the cast’s use of native rather than fake English accents.
To be sure, the directors take some dramatic gambles that don’t pay off – like according too much dignity to Polonius (overcorrecting the excessive clownishness so common in lesser productions) and playing around with the chronology of his slaying by Hamlet.
For the most part, though, the choices they make are thoughtful and provocative, so much so that this may well be one of the best American productions of the play since Kevin Kline’s triumph in Central Park.
The entire cast give the kind of confident, affecting performances possible only when players really understand what they are saying.
As Hamlet, Scott is one of those rare American actors who understands that verse is no barrier to authenticity and is willing to let the rhythms of Shakespeare’s poetry work their own magic.
Always believable and human, he takes plenty of risks, and most of them pay off.
Among the rest, Sheridan’s Claudius is a particular pleasure: He combines the affect of a blandly good-looking Midwestern corporate CEO with the steely ruthlessness of a properly Machiavellian Renaissance prince.
Lisa Gay Hamilton is a little old for Ophelia, but she succeeds in winning your sympathy even before she’s driven mad by the contradictory demands and cynicism of the man she loves.