Titles & images are property
of their respective owners.
There is a messege board on the main page.

Pick here to go back to main page.
For this page, you are visitor number:
Hamlet(2000)
Official Site

* of ****
Pre-release Length: 111 minutes
As-seen Length: less than 100 minutes
Written by William Shakespeare
Adapted & Directed by Michael Almereyda
cast:
Hamlet by Ethan Hawke
Claudios by Kyle Machlaclan
Gertude by Diane Venora
Polonius by Bill Murray
Ophelia by Julia Stiles

The theater where I saw this film was the same classic movie house, The
Oriental Theater, where I saw The Patriot.  They have an original Kimball Theater Pipe Organ, the largest of its kind in any movie theater in the country, that is played before the 7pm time slot movies in the main theater every Saturday night.  It is part of a theater chain, Landmark Theaters, that specializes in independent, alternative, and foreign films.  It is also one of the few places in the country that is playing this film.  And now I know why.  :(

The movie is set in New York City, in the year 2000.  You could expect a contemporary adaptation of Hamlet to be somewhat choppy just by the nature of the need to make individual scenes work.  The problem is there are big chunks of the play missing.  You catch yourself thinking on some occasions that you must have fallen asleep or something, but you didn't.  In fact, when two of these gaps occur, you can see the place on the film print that appeared to be poorly spliced back together.  What ties the scenes together is the darkness common to most of the scenes, and the dark brooding music throughout.  Not that I would expect the score to be cheerful or anything.  It was interesting to see how they made the modern adaptations of the words that worked in a modern setting. 

This is a good example of why the Adapter should not be the Director.  Almereyda clearly had a vision, but he could not see it clearly.  The overuse of broadcasting the prose over laptops, camcorders and television just spoke to the fact that he didn't otherwise know how to make the adaptation.  Far to much dialogue cam from non humans.  It was far beyond artistic stretch.  The jet contrail symbology was not clear, but that did work.  The chronic use of the fax machine as the only form of message delivery also quickly wore thin in this McHamlet.  The "to be or not to be" speech was such a gross commercial for video stores, and Blockbuster in particular, that the audience couldn't help but burst out laughing.  After that, the audience had no real involvement with this movie.  Missing scenes that I know of that were in the original cut of this movie include the repeated "get thee to a nunnery" on the answering machine, and the ghost coming out of the Pepsi machine.  That would also have had the audience laughing at the blatant commercialism of it all.  The fencing match on the rooftop actually made for a good end to this movie. 

The acting would have been fine if there were a better director involved.  Ethan Hawke played the flat Hamlet that the director wanted, but even in murder and death, Hamlet was flat.  Bill Murray stood out because he played Polonius quite well, at least as well as the direction would allow.  Julia Stiles made a good Ophelia for this movie.  It seems like only one actor was allowed to stand out in his few scenes, and that was he who played Ophelia's brother.  The small part of Horatio was played well also.   The use of Shakespeare's language in a modern setting did sound silly at first, but that was comfotable in a few minutes.  This cast could have worked, the basic adaptation could have worked with a fair amount of completing, but the director must be led to the Whooping Stick, and a new one put in his place.  Weren't Hamlet and Ophelia supposed to be in love or something?  This movie did not work.  It would have been difficult to make it work, but anyone who did would be getting much praise.  This was a Cliff's Notes movie that told only the minimal uncomplicated story with minimal acting. 

Note that there is a Hamlet(2001) in American production to be Directed by Campbell Scott.  That's over 45 Hamlet's in one century!

Soundtrack: composed by Carter Burwell
1. Too Too Solid Flesh
2. Murder Most Foul
3. Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
4. Darkroom
5. To Be Or Not To Be
6. Wiring Ophelia
7. The Funeral
8. Claudius Prayer
9. Hamlet Walks the Plane
10. Laertes and Ophelia at the Guggenheim
11. Claudius Incites Laertes
12. The Duel
13. The End