Hamlet (15)

Hamlet returns to England to mourn his father, the CEO of Elsinore Property who has died at the age of 77. The shell-shocked son learns plans are already afoot for his uncle Claudius to marry his mother Gertrude just days after losing her husband. In private Hamlet laments the "most wicked speed" of this announcement and he numbs his grief with booze and drugs at a nightclub before stumbling uneasily into the street and glimpsing his father's ghost.

LondonNet Film Review

Hamlet (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Riz Ahmed reunites with director Aneil Karia, five years after they collaborated on an Oscar-winning short film to complement the actor’s concept album The Long Goodbye, for a contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy. This pared-down Hamlet reduces The Bard’s poetic text to under two hours and stokes murderous intent within a prosperous South Asian community responsible for altering London’s skyline with towering constructions…

Hamlet (Ahmed) returns to England to mourn his father (Avijit Dutt), the CEO of Elsinore Property who has died at the age of 77. The shell-shocked son learns plans are already afoot for his uncle Claudius (Art Malik) to marry his mother Gertrude (Sheeba Chaddha). “Cast your mourning colour off and let your eye look like a friend on Uncle,” solemnly implores the bride-to-be just days after losing her husband. “All that lives must die.” In private Hamlet laments the “most wicked speed” of this announcement and he numbs his grief with booze and drugs at a nightclub before stumbling uneasily into the street and glimpsing his father’s ghost.

Atop one of the company’s apartment blocks under development, Hamlet learns the shocking truth: “The sickness that did sting your father’s life now wears his crown.” The murdered CEO urges revenge and fashions Hamlet as the instrument of his retribution. The son initially seeks out Ophelia (Morfydd Clark) to share the spectral encounter then sets about plotting a fitting revenge with the help of a dancer, who is set to perform at the wedding. However, Hamlet’s “excellent good friend” Laertes (Joe Alwyn) and Ophelia’s father Polonius (Timothy Spall) intrude upon his spiralling grief.

Hamlet is an elegant distillation of Shakespeare’s text which relinquishes some of the stage version’s memorable moments to focus attention on Ahmed’s vengeful son as he mentally unravels in close-up. Plotting remains credible to a modern-day setting. Screenwriter Michael Lesslie’s dialogue retains the essence of the iambic pentameter and Ahmed is magnificent navigating soliloquies in hushed tones as he debates back and forth with himself about kin poisoning and manipulating kin in pursuit of power and influence.

Handheld camerawork frequently mirrors the title character’s jitters as a supposedly righteous plan comes together to stage a performance at the wedding that will publicly expose Claudius’s guilt. Despite Clark’s sterling work, Ophelia makes less impact here and Karia wrongfoots Shakespeare purists in the film’s foreboding closing act by heaping tragedy in unexpected directions. To be or not to be slavishly faithful to the source material, that is not the question.

– Jo Planter