Hamlet | Official Film Trailer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite an already overstuffed abundance of Hamlet adaptations that reimagine an old story emanating during contemporary times, Aneil Karia’s distinctly frenetic vision finds an anxiously uncomfortable place of its own among the many artistic imitators, particularly as a result of the many presentational qualities that effortlessly appraise the kind of necessary tension and isolated claustrophobia that seamlessly transfer the dramatic tangibility’s of stage plays to the overzealousness of Hamlet’s quest for toxic vengeance. From the very first frame of the movie, there’s a palpable grittiness and gravitational uneasiness sewn similarly to psychological thrillers that finds its way to the executed sensibilities of Hamlet’s life-altering observations, with tightly framed handheld cinematography from Stuart Bentley that not only makes this incarnation feel like a Safdie Brothers movie, in terms of unrelenting obtrusion of up close and very personal photography that puts the emotional focus front and center with Ahmed’s commanding performance, but also a colorfully intoxicating allure for neon aesthetics within the appreciated designation of London’s South Asian nightlife that imbeds culturally significant splendor to the opportunistic candidness of the movie’s depiction, sewing such a distinct sense of cultural influence to the complexity of the family narrative that stands out among aforementioned predecessors whose majority of decorated ensemble are white Caucasian actors. That’s not to say that this film embraces woke ideals as an alienating gimmick to the script’s grander picture, but rather another fruitful example of how Shakespeare’s story of familial deception and perception versus reality lends itself accordingly to a complexion of versatile cultures that are driven by the commonality of the universal language of life and death, with a richly enacted and effectively attainable sense of thorough emotionality driving these characters and the many devious actions that feel like the grandest soap opera involving the greatest of stakes. Despite experiencing the consistencies of this recognizable story constantly throughout my lifetime, screenwriter Michael Lesslie’s version of the script makes the journey feel freshly innovative and entertainingly endearing, as a result of the responsibly unorthodox decisions that he makes while trimming the fat of an incredibly lengthy stage play, in order to maintain urgency to the depths of the directive, with one such creative liberty involving the movie remaining faithfully alongside the titular character, throughout the movie’s 109-minute duration, so as to articulate the societal isolation and emotional transformation that defines Hamlet to being the four hundred pound elephant in the rooms of every wedding party that he chooses to grace. While Ahmed is undeniably up for the Herculean task of maintaining audiences vested interests to the air of his impressive performance, especially with such an introspectively insightful look at grief and obsessive vengeance, this unnatural aspect also enacts a barebones approach to the storytelling that focuses entirely on its most memorable of scenes and speeches, with very little evidence of the convolution of a five act structure anywhere in this smoothly seamless outline that constantly keeps the story moving throughout its duration. The most iconic of these instances is definitely the ‘To be or not to be’ speech delivered by Hamlet, which here is enacted brilliantly in the depths of a single take high-speed car ride with so much digestible danger and intensity to the ways his words recontextualize so much about the observational feelings that he’s expressing during so much moral irresponsibility. On top of some refreshing deviations paid to its screenplay, as well as the gritty grandeur of Karia’s vital direction, the film also inscribes a lot of meaningful merit to the subtlety of its costume design, particularly the white tunic worn by Hamlet throughout the movie’s entirety, that gradually grows dirtier, sweatier, and even bloodier, the longer the film progresses, in order to reflect the decomposing elements of his once admirable morality. This is certainly a pre-heated underlining to the main course being Riz Ahmed’s career-defining commitment to character, involving a tormentedly haunted and emotionally reckless incarnation of Hamlet that feels like the manifestation of grief’s unshakeable grip upon those left unceremoniously behind. Ahmed believably nails the long-winded diatribes of unyielding angst that define his character’s morbidity towards those who betrayed him, but his single most admirable quality to capture stems from the detailed body language that vividly conveys the exhausting tediousness and fiery intensity that he commits as exclamation points to the punctuating emphasis of every forecasting threat, and considering Ahmed took three years to perfect the role before filming began, the perfection of his deliveries combines with the complexity of his character’s morality, in order to render a Hamlet defined by his immaturity and insecurities, in turn leveling what would easily be another Oscar nomination for the British actor, if the film didn’t release so early in the cinematic calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the film does pack a profoundly endearing punch to the contemporary tweaking of its ages old material, there are some compromisingly unfortunate aspects of its execution that occasionally detracted away from my vested interests in the film, beginning with Lesslie’s divisive decision to maintain the Shakespearian dialect to the dialogue delivered from the characters, which I feel didn’t correspond effectively to the modernistic take exhibited by the movie’s modernistic setting. If you’re someone enamored with Shakespearian dialogue, this obviously won’t intrude upon your enjoyment of the film, but for me personally, I could’ve used contemporary translating to captivate an unobscured relatability to the emotions and observations implored between the conflicts of these contending characters, especially within such thickly resonating English accents that already require audiences to hang onto every word of these deliveries. For my money, if the film found ways to translate these sentiments as a way that keeps all of us faithfully connected to what we’re interpreting, then it would’ve held a firmer grasp on the connectivity and cohesion of its audience, but as it unfortunately stands, if you’re someone lacking proper definition to Shakespeare’s jumbled jargon, then a lot of these interactions might come across as condemning to your overall enjoyment of the film, especially if you’re someone experiencing the Hamlet story for the first time in your life. Aside from my grievances with the desired dialogue, the script’s aforementioned faithful persistence alongside Hamlet does allow for a thoroughly insightful character journey that corresponds so connectively to the air of his bizarrely enacted actions upon those who wronged him, but it doesn’t help to flesh any of the supporting characters out in meaningfully layered ways that make them feel as important to what’s transpiring, especially the lack of attained emotionality earned from the deaths of certain characters, who feel like temporary speedbumps, instead of life-altering circumstances. While the performances from this accomplished ensemble do the necessary heavy lifting to inscribe humanity and empathy to their respective designs, in ways that clash speculatively with Hamlet’s desire for disastrous vengeance, the script’s limited pursuit of their lasting legacies to this particular experience leaves each of them feeling like manufactured plot devices corresponding to Hamlet’s actions, rather than integral aspects to the movie’s foundation, where those trimmed scenes of excess exposition at the movie’s origin sacrifices a meaningful magnitude to so many of the dynamics that weave themselves in and out of Hamlet’s perilous psychology. Finally, my previous conveyance to Safdie Brothers films like Uncut Gems or Good Time is one that’s great for the anxiousness and grittily grim outlining of this established culturally relevant setting, but it does very little to calm the inevitable tediousness of those casually exhausted by such an experience, with a complete lack of levity in the in-between moments to properly volumize each individual deterrence, instead of feeling like one never-ending nightmare. I can certainly understand the intention is to maximize the suspense and tension of this road to revenge, but every movie requires down moments to appreciate more of that unrelenting anxiousness, and considering so many of these moments bleed into one another, as a result of the movie’s relaxed editing practices, it never finds a way to take its energy down to a comfortable six or seven, instead servicing an exhausting experience that will inevitably be a one and done for so many of those who experience it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
Hamlet might sound like a familiarly overdone story, but this latest creative and cultural reimagining streamlines a serviceably frenetic sensibility to its invigorating contemporary retelling that makes this a grittily grimy and brutally bloody addition to the strangely surreal cinematic history of this story, made must-see by Riz Ahmed’s compellingly chaotic performance that never blinks under the monumental pressure of carrying the movie on his broad shoulders. While the film is a resounding success for those seeking fresh aspects to endear it to an entirely new generation of Shakespearian enthusiasts, not every decision comes with meaningful merit to the film’s tediously tumultuous execution, leaving it a tatteredly flawed but dramatically compelling opportunity to indulge upon the universal language of a writer who was hundreds of years ahead of his time<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 7.3 or B<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By Aneil Karia Starring – Riz Ahmed, Morfydd Clark, Avijit Dutt The Plot – Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy is reimagined in a bold, modern adaptation set within London’s elite South Asian community. When Hamlet (Ahmed) returns for his father’s funeral, he is stunned to discover his uncle Claudius (Art Malik) is marrying his newly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9586"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9588,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9586\/revisions\/9588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}