Directed By Joel Coen

Starring – Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Alex Hassell

The Plot – A Scottish lord (Washington) becomes convinced by a trio of witches that he will become the next King of Scotland, and his ambitious wife (McDormand) supports him in his plans of seizing power.

Rated R for scenes of violence

The Tragedy of Macbeth | Official Trailer HD | A24 – YouTube

POSITIVES

Though the story of Macbeth has been adapted endlessly throughout decades of expressionist cinema, it’s through the eyes of a Coen where it finds its most transfixingly endearing mastering throughout the entirety of its meaningful existence. Coen crafts a darkly ominous, but almost dreamlike consistency to the various images and tones that wholeheartedly blankets the experience, articulating this fantastical approach, that while ambitious in visionary scope, feels richly authentic for the meticulous production values that coherently maintain that authenticity from the stage where it originally prospered. The set design feels intentionally hollow and noticeably artificial for its lack of decoration or accommodating detail, in turn keeping the focus front and center on the long-winded diatribes of the actors in frame, for words that feel epic with the kind of grand scale that otherwise isn’t needed in the concepts of various settings. This echoes all the more exceptionally with the creativity in the editing that prescribes many faithful homages to classic cinema. Sometimes it pertains to the ominous engulfing fog on-screen to make it feel like one continuous shot, other times the transitions lend themselves to abrupt fades to black that may end a scene but never resolve one, maintaining the air of momentum that continuously strides throughout rhythmic deliveries. The iconography of visuals is also nothing to take for granted here, as the combination of lighting and picture-perfect framing from longtime Coen-Brothers accomplice, cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, completely hypnotizes us with a colorless canvas that brings to light the dream-like essence of the film’s uniqueness, all the while permeating ambiguity in the metaphorical clarity that often seduces characters for the weight of the crown. In addition to this, the desire of Coen to shoot 95% of the film in an actual soundstage is one that also triggers an indulging familiarity to the stage, primarily in the intricacies of the impeccable sound design, with all of their vocal echoing and thunderous pounding coherently playing towards the ominous raptures of fate playing its most provocative of hands. Likewise, the musical score from Carter Burwell, while subdued in both volume and influential capacities, does resonate in the distance with an air of inevitability that grows all the more unsettling the longer it persists, without ever taking anything away from the capabilities of the actors, who continuously deliver throughout. Speaking of which, while the entirety of the ensemble is perfectly cast and effectively guided by Coen, it’s no surprise that the work of Washington and McDormand are the primary bread winners for the taking. Washington’s spin certainly captures the devious nature of Macbeth, complete with a mental instability that he elicits continuously with long-winded diatribes of impressive length and memorization, but it’s the vulnerability deposited to the character that I found most endearing, especially with the conscience of the character always being his most distinguishable aspect. For McDormand’s interpretation, the lady of the manor is surprisingly accessible throughout the depth and depravity of her transformation, but it’s the subtle nuances that Frances distributes that are most conveying, particularly in a wincing to a discovery or biting of her lip in her thirst for the crown, which conveys an eagerness in greed that completely eviscerates the characteristics of her humanity. As for the script and storytelling elements, there’s more than a few noticeable gaps of motivation missing from the literary companion that didn’t find its way to the screen, but for the most part I found this script exceptional for the magnitude of material that it has the difficult task of summarizing down for 102 minutes. The narrative itself trims the fat where the original Macbeth feels derivative or redundant, and the overall pacing kept me firmly invested to the dynamic of the ages-old betrayal at the forefront of the story, which here feels as conflicting as ever before with the psychology of the aforementioned performances feeling as monumental as ever before.

NEGATIVES

Honestly, the dialogue is still the only thing hindering my complete investment to this literary achievement of a story, particularly with the magnitude of Shakespearian-speak often muddling the clarity of these impactful engagements. It goes without saying that this particular form of language is the single most important aspect in transferring a play from the works of Shakespeare, but I wish they were a little more relaxed with the structure of its vocabulary as they were the consistency of the accents, particularly in the two main protagonists who periodically lack any semblance of geographic relevance. Thankfully, “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is one of those films where the visuals equally convey the meaning of the actions intently, as I feel this film could succeed on its own as a silent film. However, I still feel like the outdated concepts of the language itself is the lone hinderance that is accommodating and opening itself up to a new generation of fans, made all the more troubling here for schemes of the sound design and musical accompaniments that cater directly to the dialogue.

OVERALL

For the first time in his legendary career, Joel Coen takes an honorary bow of his own, combining the immersive authenticity of the stage play with advancements in technical merits to attain something freshly invigorating for fans of the centuries-old story. Richly atmospheric, spectacularly acted, and marvelously captured, Coen combines skillful substance and hypnotic style for an out-of-this-world engagement that prescribes refreshing originality to a story with no shortage of diverse adaptations.

My Grade: 9/10 or A-