Hamlet (1996)
Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Film Review

With two well-received Shakespeare adaptations under his belt - Henry V (1989) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993) - Kenneth Branagh was well placed to fulfil his life's ambition, to direct and star in a big budget screen production of Hamlet, the Bard's greatest play and arguably the most important work in the English language.  Not one to cut corners or take the easy option, Branagh committed himself to delivering the most complete version of the play, in a way that would be accessible to a mainstream cinema audience.  There had been several screen adaptations of the play prior to this - the best-known being Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948) - but none had presented the play in its entirety and on such a lavish scale.  Four hours in length, Branagh's Hamlet is not only doggedly faithful to the original play, but it is also a stunningly well-crafted piece of cinema in its own right, arguably the most compelling and inspired Shakespeare adaptation for the big screen to date.

In a less ambitious production, the star-studded cast would have seemed gratuitously self-indulgent.  But, with Branagh so evidently bent on achieving maximum impact in every aspect of his production, do we care that Ken Dodd shows up as Yorick (in one of the film's many flashback sequences) or that Gérard Depardieu is wasted in a minor supporting role?   If there was ever a place where Branagh could justify going over the top, both in his acting and his direction, it is surely here, in a play where mental aberration and court intrigue are linked in a frenetic dance of death, where the boundary between madness and sanity is constantly shifting and deep-seated passions threaten to tear apart the Royal House of Denmark in a convulsion of murderous loathing.  The film's visual excesses have earned it a fair amount of criticism in some quarters, but these can be justified, as they not only make the play more accessible but they also vividly convey the emotional confusion and mental turmoil that are slowly tearing apart the central protagonist and his ill-fated entourage.  With its magnetic performances and stunning mise-en-scène, the film has just as much to offer hard core Shakespeare enthusiasts as those who have yet to be acquainted with the dramatic delights of the Bard of Avon.

Branagh's portrayal of the character Hamlet is almost as daringly original as his staging of the play.   Far from being the weak, indecisive character that is often depicted, Branagh's Hamlet blazes with vitality and resolution and negotiates his existential quagmire with the manic impudence of a celebrity footballer.  The speech that reveals most about this Hamlet is not the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy but rather the more enigmatic "There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow" speech, which can be read both as an acceptance of mortality and as the clearest sign of this Hamlet's insane fixity of purpose.  Whilst Branagh does occasionally go too far towards histrionic excess, the energy and focus that he brings to his performance is one of the things that makes the film so thoroughly riveting.  And, like the shock absorbers on a car, the other great actors that surround Branagh dampen his wild excesses and make the journey much more comfortable than it might have been.

The film's most compelling and most perfectly judged performance is supplied by Derek Jacobi, an acting legend of the British stage and screen who had previously played Hamlet in a highly acclaimed BBC television version (first broadcast in 1980).  Jacobi's portrayal of Claudius is more nuanced and fascinating than Branagh's Hamlet and has far greater depth and ambiguity than in any screen adaptation of the play to date.  Far from being the villain of the piece, Jacobi's Claudius is as much a victim of circumstances as Hamlet and the play is as much his tragedy as it is that of his vindictive nephew.  Julie Christie's Gertrude also deserves a special mention - she is suitably placed as the central victim of the drama, torn between rival loves and duties, a creature of nobility and tainted virtue who deserves far better than she gets.   Other notable contributions include: Billy Crystal's wryly philosophical Gravedigger, Richard Briers's creepily meddlesome Polonius and Kate Winslet's exquisitely tormented Orphlia.  Charlton Heston shows a rare moment of brilliance with his moving interpretation of the Player King, and Jack Lemmon is so convincing as Marcellus that you hardly recognise him.  And how inspired was it to cast Brian Blessed as the ghost of Hamlet's father and get him to deliver all of his lines in a faint whisper?

With such an abundance of acting talent, the film would have been enthralling if it had been staged in an empty warehouse illuminated by a single 40 watt light-bulb.  But, not content with going overboard with his performance, Kenneth Branagh shows as much gutsy extravagance with his staging of the play, and the end result is simply stunning.  This version of Hamlet is set early in the 19th century, so the snow-covered grounds of Blenheim Palace are a suitably majestic setting, matched by the equally grandiose palace interiors (which you would hardly mistake for a studio set).  The expansive sets, sumptuously shot in 70mm widescreen, not only give the film a grandeur that it deserves but also provide ample scope for some imaginatively fluid camerawork.  The latter allows Branagh to stage some impressively long takes and create a chilling aura of menace and oppression.  You can actually feel the walls closing in on Hamlet as the drama builds towards its inescapably grim climax.  Flashbacks are used skilfully to expand the narrative and clarify certain plot details which are easily overlooked, such as Hamlet's former relationship with Ophelia and the imminent threat of an all-out war with Norway.  Far from distracting us from Shakespeare's text, these visual embellishments lend a clarity and depth that are missing from most stagings of the play.  The one false note is the hideously intrusive music, which tends to become a tad syrupy in the film's most poignant passages.  Fortunately, this is a minor blemish in an otherwise faultless production.  With the support of a remarkable ensemble of acting talent  and technicians, Branagh makes a success of his great ambition and gives us a truly inspired re-interpretation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece.

Film Synopsis

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.  Amid the festivities of a royal wedding and coronation, the Prince Hamlet mourns the death of his father, the former king.  When he neglects his lover Orpelia, his mother, Queen Gertrude, becomes anxious that his grief may be the overture to madness.  One night, the young prince is visited by the ghost of his father and is appalled to learn that his father was poisoned by his uncle, Claudius, so that the latter could usurp both his throne and his queen.  Hamlet resolves to avenge this act of villainy but first he must prove Claudius's guilt.  This he does by staging a play before the royal court, a play which re-enacts the killing of the former king of Denmark as described by the ghost.  As Hamlet expected, Claudius betrays himself by his reaction.  But in doing so, the prince has made himself a very dangerous enemy and precipitated a chain of events that can only end in disaster.  Meanwhile, the armies of Norway are preparing for war against Denmark...