Hamlet

“Hamlet” (2006, Alexander Fodor)

It is always difficult to watch a story that has already been told so many times without comparison to those previous tellings, but Alexander Fodor’s version of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is definitely an original telling of the play. Fodor takes the otherwordly aspect of the play and uses it as a lens through which to exhibit his version of Hamlet. It helps to have such a fantastic actor (both physically and in skill) in James Frail playing the ghost of King Hamlet. This take on the ghost takes Kenneth Brannagh’s steely blue-eyed ghost to another level. The scene in which Hamlet zones out in front of the guards into his meeting with his father’s ghost is a terrific version of events. It drives home the intense emotion of this encounter.

What works best for this film is also what works the worst. The non-diagetic world of film always defines the mood of the scene and when that audio is not used wisely, man can it kill a scene. Many a film has been ruined by the mtv-style antics that are too commonly used and/or overused. And so in some areas of the film, the music and sounds are used so expertly and alternately so horribly in others, that the movie can be as maddening as Hamlet’s world must be. While I think it would be wise to illustrate the range of emotions Hamlet must be feeling in dealing with the familial betrayals that surround him, it can never be as wise to annoy the viewer into seeing this point.

There are so many interesting choices taken to show Fodor’s version and like the use of the audio, not all of them good. Color is used to perfection in fleshing out the emotions of the scenes. I enjoyed the gender reversals of Polonius and Horatio (played by two gorgeous actresses, Lydia Piechowiak & Katie Reddin-Clancy respectively). In a scene in which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are talking with Hamlet, they take turns talking into the camera and it all seems like an amateurish, last-minute idea technique throw-in that is out of place with the rest of the film.

In the context of taking on such a monumental task of translating a Shakespeare work to film, which has been done before a few times, Alexander Fodor definitely comes up with an original piece of work and should be commended for that. There are plenty of kinks that should’ve been ironed out, but as noted before, there are plenty moments to be lauded.