I Hate Hamlet
Hamlet
Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Kate Winslet, Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, plus many celebrity cameos
Director: Kenneth Branagh
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Every British actor worth his salt wants to play Hamlet.
Every British actor not worth his salt also wants to play Hamlet. Unfortunately for Kenneth Branagh, he falls into the latter category. And unfortunately for film fans, Branagh directed as well as starred in his 1996 adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy, in the process transforming one of the Bard's best plays into an unwatchable mess.
"The play's the thing..."
If you haven't read Hamlet, here's a recap: the King of Denmark (Brian Blessed) has recently passed away. After his death, his brother Claudius (Jacobi) ascended to the throne, and shortly thereafter married the widowed Queen (Christie). This upsets the King's son, Hamlet (Branagh), who of all in the people in the kingdom seems to be the only one still mourning his father.
So when the King's ghost appears to his son and demands revenge for "murder most foul," the stage is set for a quick if bloody end to Claudius' reign. But Hamlet, for one reason or another (the exact cause is a source of endless debate), does not take immediate action. Instead he feigns madness, a strategy that will eventually lead to the destruction of himself, Ophelia (Winslet), her father Polonius (Richard Briers), and her brother Laertes (Michael Moloney) as well as the royal couple.
"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action"
If Branagh had followed the above advice, he would have fared much, much better.
In contrast to some film versions of plays, which are criticized as being too "stagey" (too much dialogue, not enough action), Branagh's version of Hamlet is full of action. Unfortunately, the camera seems to be doing most of it. Certain sequences call attention to themselves, as if they were jumping up and down and yelling, "You're watching a movie!"
A specific example: as Hamlet is heading to exile in England, he encounters the army of Fortinbras. It might have been nice to see some close-ups of the soldiers and Hamlet — the glint of sun on armor, a commander urging his men onward, a glimpse of the determination in a soldier's eyes — to highlight the contrast between the army's purposeful march and the Dane's lack of resolve.
Instead, during Hamlet's last speech of the act, the camera focuses on Branagh and slowly zooms out as he speaks. By the time he's finished with his lines, he barely registers on the screen. This sequence (literally) diminishes him, and lessens the impact of what he's saying.
That's an extreme example, but less blatant ones can be found throughout the movie.
"The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical ..."
It's a shame that the film's histrionic staging overshadows the movie's one strength, its actors. Hamlet tends to attract big names, and this one was no exception, as Judi Dench, John Gielgud, Charlton Heston, Jack Lemmon, Gérard Depardieu, Robin Williams, and Billy Crystal signed on for cameos. In some cases, they were completely gratuitous — Dench appears only as a figment of the Player-King's imagination — but still fun to watch. As for the stars, Kate Winslet (a year before Titanic) was the standout as the troubled Ophelia, and fellow British actors Derek Jacobi and Julie Christie acquitted themselves well as Claudius and Gertrude.
Unfortunately, Branagh made a terrible decision to cast himself as Hamlet (at 36, he's too old to creditably play a student) and does an equally horrible job of directing himself. Another director might have been able to rein in his worst tendencies; as it is, Branagh the director only seems to encourage Branagh the actor's excesses. It doesn't help that this version goes the full five acts, making Hamlet's dilly-dallying and Branagh's over-acting even harder to endure.
So if you have a hankering for a great Dane, this is not the one to see. I'd actually recommend Mel Gibson's 1990 version over Branagh's. Gibson brought an energy to the role I'd never seen before, and he's backed up by Glenn Close and Alan Bates as his mother and uncle.
