Hamlet, 2025.
Directed by Aneil Karia.
Starring Riz Ahmed, Morfydd Clark, Timothy Spall, Art Malik, Jasmine Jobson, Sheeba Chaddha, Joe Alwyn, and Avijit Dutt.
SYNOPSIS:
Hamlet comes home for his father’s funeral and finds his uncle Claudius marrying his widowed mother Gertrude. His father’s ghost reveals Claudius murdered him, leading Hamlet toward revenge and introspection.
Aspiring to be a modernized take on William Shakespeare’s timeless classic Hamlet, it’s mildly disappointing that the notion doesn’t translate into adjustments to the dialogue; instead, it relies on the text, which feels bluntly goofy when spoken by such mouths. It is such a revered play that can be set in the past, present, future or some other alternate reality entirely, and has been reimagined time and time again (just last year we not only saw an incredible theorized origin story of the inception of the play, and a couple of months later a trippy, vividly realized anime conceptualized take was released), including everything from talking warthogs to biker gangs and more. The possibilities are quite literally limitless, as has been proven time and time again.
With that in mind, for director Aneil Karia and Michael Lesslie to roll with lifting the dialogue from the play while setting this inside the 21st-century corporate world comes across as a halfhearted commitment to the idea, or perhaps a lack of confidence in their abilities.
Whatever the case may be, it puts a heavy burden (one could say heavy lies the crown) on star Riz Ahmed in the famous, eponymous role to fully immerse himself in that dialogue and make the most of every lengthy speech and soliloquy. To his credit, he is absorbing as Hamlet, with appropriate shaky cam work from cinematographer Stuart Bentley to emphasize his growing hysteria, self-doubt, confliction, and madness, throwing himself into every time-tested, memorable passage (to be fair, this is a streamlined interpretation of the play with at least one composite character, but that overreliance on the text stands). These ideas are solid, in theory. Sometimes, they are unintentionally hilarious, with “to be or not to be” coming during a suicidal speeding down a highway.
Set within a London-based South Asian family, the filmmakers also don’t seem to be doing much of interest with the fresh racial dynamics. There is a fairly showstopping cultural dance number that shines not only for its choreography and striking color palette but also for its clever way of conveying a critical plot point. However, that is essentially where the creativity begins and ends, for what should be ripe for a distinct telling.
The plot is… well, it’s Hamlet. This titular character from a rather ruthless family mourns the death of his father (Avijit Dutt), mostly straying away from the theatrics and politicking going on between his uncle Claudius (Art Malik) and company personnel which includes business partner Polonius (Timothy Spall), and his son Laertes (Joe Alwyn, who is the brother of Ophelia (Morfydd Clark); she is someone the prince (yes, the characters talk like this in the modern world) is increasingly becoming distant from. Claudius is set to marry Hamlet’s mom, Gertrude (Sheeba Chaddha), primarily to benefit the company merger in this version of the story.
The rest of the ensemble isn’t given much depth to work with beyond the slightest of alterations that don’t change much. Once a supernatural manifestation of Hamlet’s Father appears to his son, revealing the grim truth that he was murdered by poison, it sends him on a path of bottled-up anger pouring out, occasionally directed at himself for not having the spine to take matters into his own hands.
Unless one has a strong affinity for hearing William Shakespeare’s writing spoken aloud, even in nonsensical settings and eras, there is certainly reason enough to check out Hamlet for Riz Ahmed’s central performance and the film’s look (which includes ceremonious spectacle and fittingly eye-popping costume design). This is also, surprisingly, a much more violent film than people might expect regarding one death.
However, to say this version of Hamlet makes good on its pitch would be a stretch. It is far too confined to the crutch of hoping the dialogue lands in a modern scenario, which, let’s face it, will alienate anyone who hasn’t recently brushed up on the text. The filmmakers themselves are somewhere between a straight remake and a re-imagination, having apparently not asked themselves what to be or not to be.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
