Hamlet [VHS] [2000]

Whoever decided that Hamlet should have a "grungy" look, carried it to an unpleasant extreme...and that woolen cap with the earflaps ! I realize this was done to make him look "unhinged", but it bothered me. This film loses a star, just for that hideous woolen cap.
Otherwise, the art direction is good, and the cinematography (John de Borman) is excellent, highlighting some great architecture (it also highlights a lot of "in your face" product placement). Listen for Eartha Kitt's "buckle up" message, it's a welcome chuckle.

This film is an interesting curiosity piece, but I recommend seeing the Zeffirelli/Gibson version afterwards, which is a film that gets better with each viewing, and would be in my "Top 10" list of all time favorites.

The interpretation is not at fault, however. "Hamlet" can indeed be transposed very well into a modern-day setting, one only has to watch the Royal Shakespeare Company's superb current production of the play starring Sam West to realise that- the play does work as a business-world drama. But this movie was so filled with unnecessary gimmickry and horrendous abridgement (I often found myself saying "Where did the rest of that line go?!" and no scene lasted longer than two minutes) that the play was smothered underneath it.

So now to the individual cast.

Ethan Hawke as the troubled Dane (or rather, the troubled New Yorker) is entirely one-sided. Often we see Hamlets who are witty, charming, emotional, brooding and twisted. Hawke's Hamlet is brooding. Throughout. And nothing else.

Kyle MacLachlan is slightly better as Claudius, though someone with a more powerful screen presence might have been a bit more suited to the role.

Bill Murray as Polonius isn't too bad, although most of his lines are heavily cut and hence he doesn't get much of a chance to shine. He certainly brings out the "tedious old fool" aspect of the character.

Liev Schreiber, Diane Venora and Sam Shepard as Laertes, Gertrude and the Ghost respectively are all fairly good, and would be very good indeed given the same parts in a better version of the play.

Julia Stiles as Ophelia is uninteresting and frankly unmoving.

On the whole, the majority of these characters are portrayed by Shakespeare as complex three-dimensional characters. Michael Almereyda choses, however, to cut or downplay the third dimension to each (the happy side of Hamlet, the remorseful side of Claudius, the angry side of Polonius) and thus it ends up a play full of caricatures.

It seems to me as if this film is the version designed for people who want to be able to say that they've seen "Hamlet", when actually all they've seen is a gimmicky version in which over half the text is cut.

Oh, and, apart from a novel take on Gertrude's death, the ending is appalling.