Here is the New York Times Review of the Hamlet (2000) by Starring Ethan Hawk and Julia Stiles. I thought It would be helpful for those of you who are choosing this movie for their film analysis paper.
Also Here is the Link to the Article
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940CE7DC173BF931A25756C0A9669C8B63
Hamlet (2000)
FILM REVIEW; A Simpler Melancholy
By ELVIS MITCHELL
Published: May 12, 2000
''It is curious; one never thinks of attaching 'Hamlet' to any
special locale,'' the critic Kenneth Tynan once wrote of Shakespeare's
tragedy, and the director Michael Almereyda has brilliantly seized upon
that by rooting his voluptuous and rewarding new adaptation of the play
in today's Manhattan. The city's contradictions of beauty and squalor
give the movie a sense of place -- it makes the best use of the
Guggenheim Museum you'll ever see in a film -- and New York becomes a
complex character in this vital and sharply intelligent film.
Mr. Almereyda contours the material to his own needs, even though he
was inspired by the 1987 ''Hamlet Goes Business,'' a deadpan update by
the renegade Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki. This ''Hamlet'' is also
set in the corporate world, where Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan) has risen
to the top of the Denmark Corporation.
But where Mr. Kaurismaki presented his take as a slapstick tragedy
that bordered on sadism, Mr. Almereyda layers his cool-to-the-touch
version with a luxuriant paranoia compounded by the constant deployment
of video cameras and listening devices.
Often shaded in lush, soothing hues of blue, ''Hamlet'' exudes an
intoxicating masochism in which half the cast is battling despondency
and the other half has the glint of imminent insanity. As insightfully
played by Diane Venora, Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, is in danger of
breaking down into a fine, distraught powder from the outset. In this
version, the melancholy of Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) over the death of his
father is almost a state of grace; it gives him a sense of purpose that
the other characters lack.
Mr. Almereyda has created a new standard for adaptations of
Shakespeare, starting with an understanding of the emotional pull of the
material that corresponds with its new period and setting. Hamlet's
soliloquies are now interior monologues except for the ''To be or not to
be'' speech, which he delivers in a Blockbuster video store, using the
blue in the company logo and the word ''Action'' emblazoned on the
shelves to fit in with the mood and color of the rest of the picture.
The director's rigorous trimming has a boldness and vivacity that makes
this version exhilarating while leaving Shakespeare's language and
intent intact. The use of colors -- its palette is red, green and the
aforementioned blue -- is a visual manifestation of the streamlining.
This movie will send shivers of happiness through audiences because it's
one of the few American productions of ''Hamlet'' constructed around
the rhythms of the actors, giving each scene a different pulse.
Mr. Almereyda plays to his performers' strengths, and it's awe
inspiring. The truly revelatory performance comes from the ravaged
dignity that Bill Murray lends Polonius, a weary, middle-aged man whose
every utterance sounds like a homily he should believe in and perhaps
did many years ago. Mr. Murray takes the bemused hollowness he first
discovered in sketch comedy and gives it a worn, saddened undercurrent;
it's what those bullying cynics he plays in comedies would be like in
real life after about 20 years. The speech Polonius gives to his son,
Laertes (Liev Schreiber), has a truth that ''Death of a Salesman'' can
only aspire to and certifies Mr. Murray -- who's been giving fully
shaped performances in bad or little-seen movies for years -- as one of
the finest actors currently working. ''Madam, I use no art at all,'' he
says at one point, and it's true; he uses apparent artlessness to
achieve art.
It's not just Mr. Murray and Ms. Venora who are worth watching. Mr.
MacLachlan's Claudius has a hail-fellow-well-met shallowness, a
blandness tinged with creeping ambition. Mr. Schreiber is all lovely Old
World elegance; he uses his resonant, trained voice to find the injured
quality of lines like ''You wound me, sir,'' and offers a classical
turn in the midst of the modernity. Steve Zahn plays Rosencrantz as
slacker-weasel with a blurry twang that is just what's called for here.
And Karl Geary is a steadfast, affecting Horatio.
Conceptually, ''Hamlet'' has all the goods and then some. Oddly enough,
the title character is a little lacking in complication. Mr. Hawke's
laudable commitment to the project was obviously responsible for getting
it made, and his feline transparency would appear to be right for a
Hamlet wrestling with the urge to kill Claudius and avenge his father's
death.
But this Hamlet, wearing knit caps that make him look like a lost
member of the Spin Doctors, is mired in an arrested adolescence that
infantilizes him. For this conception to be fully realized, Hamlet's
interior monologues shouldn't so fully mirror what's going on with him
outwardly; a contrast would have provided some tension. Mr. Hawke's
moping slows things down too much, and a clip from a James Dean movie
playing behind him emphasizes the self-pitying aspect.
Julia Stiles plays Ophelia, and this may be the first time in her brief
film career that this wildly talented young actress has seemed
immature. ''Hamlet'' exploits her youth effectively: Polonius laces up
her sneakers as he addresses her. But Ms. Stiles seems too much a child
and often can't get her footing as the production sprints past her. Her
natural onscreen empathy does allow for several moments that get under
the skin: Ophelia plunges into an azure pool, imagining her death; she's
often photographed at some of the most beautiful fountains and water
spouts in New York. And when distraught, she dissolves into sobs,
flinging Polaroids as if they were flower petals; it's heart-rending.
The scenes she has with Mr. Hawke with a conventional and definable
give-and-take also serve her well.
Little of Mr. Almereyda's previous films (''Another Girl, Another
Planet,'' ''Nadja''), which are often dizzy with promise, suggested that
he had the technique and imagination he brings to bear here. It's
incredibly satisfying to see a director grow in the ways that he has.
The ''Romeo and Juliet'' director Baz Luhrmann fired his camera out of
the barrel of a gun, and the overdirected velocity was a moviemaker's
equivalent of a collection of nervous tics; Mr. Almereyda's audacity
comes in problem solving, one of the true functions of a director.
Whereas Mr. Luhrmann's dazzle is all from the outside, Mr. Almereyda
goes to the heart of things and has given Shakespeare a distinctively
American perspective. ''Hamlet'' is a movie about urban isolation and
the damage it causes, using corrupted wealth as a surrogate for stained
royalty.
To develop the distrust and miscommunication -- a contemporary spin on
the Shakespearean theme of people being out of touch with their natural
environments -- bits of dialogue are filtered through other sources,
like overheard phone conversations. Mr. Almereyda's use of technology is
fascinating and well thought out; Hamlet's dead father (Sam Shepard),
for example, is first glimpsed on video screens. Hamlet's ''get thee to a
nunnery'' speech to Ophelia becomes an unrelenting tantrum; it follows
her home and continues to attack her when she turns on her answering
machine.
You'll also catch snatches of material out of the corner of your eye,
like Jeffrey Wright's cameo as the Gravedigger singing ''All Along the
Watchtower,'' a piece of pop music that was made for Shakespeare:
''There must be some kind of way out of here, said the Joker to the
Thief.''
So much of the play is pleasurably recast -- like a snapshot of
Fortinbras on a television screen as the Player King, now a news anchor,
wraps things up -- that Mr. Almereyda has created a hunger for more. In
so many ways, ''Hamlet'' is a palpable hit, or it should be.
''Hamlet'' is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult
guardian). It includes physical and psychological violence, and a
fencing duel.
HAMLET
Directed by Michael Almereyda; screen adaptation by Mr. Almereyda,
based on the Shakespeare play; director of photography, John de Borman;
edited by Kristina Boden; music by Carter Burwell; production designer,
Gideon Ponte; produced by Andrew Fierberg and Amy Hobby; released by
Miramax Films. Running time: 112 minutes. This film is rated R.
WITH: Ethan Hawke (Hamlet), Kyle Mac Lachlan (Claudius), Diane
Venora (Gertrude), Liev Schreiber (Laertes), Julia Stiles (Ophelia),
Bill Murray (Polonius), Karl Geary (Horatio), Steve Zahn (Rosencrantz),
Dechen Thurman (Guildenstern), Sam Shepard (Ghost), Jeffrey Wright
(Gravedigger) and Robin MacNeil (Player King).
