A Melancholy Shame

Old Hamlet is dead...but his corporation lives on. As one of many as of late who has expressed the desire to re-interpret Shakespeare, director Michael Almereyda has seen fit to take the age-old tale of the Prince of Denmark and set it in late '90s New York City. While we've seen a narcissistic Hamlet, a visceral Hamlet and a verbose Hamlet, now we have the young prince in a world of laptops and limousines, cellular phones and c-notes, Mercedes and martinis. Elsinore is an apartment building, Denmark is a financial concern, Fortinbras attempts a hostile takeover and Ethan Hawke plays the title role.

For the few uninitiated, Hamlet, perhaps William Shakespeare's best-known tragedy, contains enough murder, lust, spying and intrigue to become the most frequently adapted play in all of cinema. Here, Old Hamlet (Sam Shepard) has died and his brother Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan) has assumed the reins of power in more ways than one. Along with taking over his company, Claudius has married Old Hamlet's wife, Gertrude (Diane Venora), which understandably angers her son, Hamlet (Ethan Hawke). Torn between concerns for his mother and spurred by a visit from his father's ghost, our protagonist seeks to uncover the truth of his father's death by feigning madness. Couple Hamlet's anxiety to a tortuous romance with Ophelia (Julia Stiles) and meddling from her father (Bill Murray), and the plot unfolds from there. Or rather implodes, because Hamlet's acted lunacy causes the downfall of his carefully crafted yuppie world.

By Almereyda's own admission, the film was shot "fast and cheap" on 16mm film, and it shows. This version is certainly a "poor man's" Hamlet that neither remains truthful to the original text, nor emerges as a stunningly relevant interpretation that redefines the tale for our time. Under the circumstances, the text can't be faulted, but what the production team does in interpretation and execution makes for largely uninvolving storytelling.

The title role, even for the most skilled thespian, is a terribly difficult one. This version is proof of what occurs when a less capable actor attempts the task. While the choice to turn Hamlet into a filmmaker nicely modernizes his dramatic obsession, Hawke simply isn't talented or mature enough to tackle such a weighty work. Where Hamlet should be plaintive and forthright, he seems surly and bratty, and where the part calls for tortuous introspection, Hawke settles into a lifeless, gravelly monotone. For the most part, Hawke doesn't seem to know the implications of what he's saying. Accordingly, little chemistry develops with Ophelia because Stiles spends much of her screen time pouting and skulking. The only discernable reason that the two are a match for one another is because they are equally petulant. Hamlet does not represent "the courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye," just a spoiled latch-key kid whose parents didn't hug him enough. Thankfully, the two are saved by the supporting cast. Bill Murray as Polonius injects significant pathos into Polonius' foppish politicking and Liev Schriber demonstrates some exceptionally tender moments before he departs in the opening act. In their short time together, this father-son duo exudes great paternal chemistry, which ends up more compelling than the shallow animosity between Claudius and Hamlet. The film improves in the second half, which by sheer coincidence is when Hawke spends least time on screen.

In fact, this theme of minor elements succeeding while major aspects fail becomes the model for Hamlet. In one characteristic self-berating monologue, Hawke scrutinizes James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, asking, "What would he do?"-something which nicely crystallizes Hamlet's vacillation. Hamlet screaming at Gertrude to "Leave wringing of your hands" as she dives for a telephone, and placing a recording wire on Ophelia so Polonius can eavesdrop on her conversation with Hamlet are all commendable directorial choices, but the work becomes spoiled with major misinterpretation. As the play was origianlly written, Hamlet chooses not to kill Claudius in act III, scene iii, because he discovers Claudius praying and repenting in the chapel. As we see it, Claudius kneels in a limousine, attempting to atone for nothing, and Hamlet decides not to carry out the murder for no discernible reason.

As a consequence, the work remains one of confusion punctuated with moments of humor-the latter derived mainly from product placement. The ghost of Old Hamlet disappears into a "Pepsi One" sign, and the infamous brooding and melancholic speech "To be or not to be" is delivered in a Blockbuster video store in the "Action" section, next to the sign "Go Home Happy." Whether intentionally comic or not, they detract from the play's tension, sucking out any emotional involvement that might otherwise have existed.

The play is one of the greatest literary works written, but you wouldn't know it from Hamlet in the year 2000. Despite some fleeting high points, you might as well add "out of control" to Almereyda's acknowledgment the film was done "fast and cheap." The subject matter requires more time, more money and certainly more thought than this treatment has afforded. C-

HAMLET

directed by

Michael Almereyda

starring

Ethan Hawke

Diane Venora

Bill Murray

Miramax

directed by

Michael Almereyda

starring

Ethan Hawke

Diane Venora

Bill Murray

Miramax