Photo caption: Denzel Washington in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Photo courtesy of A24.
Director Joel Coen brings us the best of Shakespeare in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Of course, he has two of our finest screen actors as his leads – Denzel Washington as Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. They are both great. McDormand has played Lady Macbeth on stage at the Berkely Rep.
Vaulting ambition.Macbeth has always been my favorite Shakespearean play because my own life’s work has been a study of political ambition. Ambition raises one essential question, will you do what it takes? At first, Lady Macbeth worries that Macbeth is too decent to do what it takes, but then…
Coen is very faithful to Shakespeare’s original version, although he compresses some minor characters. Coen tells the story in a brisk one hour, forty-five minutes. The play is usually performed in well over two hours, and Roman Polanski’s fine 1971 Macbeth ran almost two-and-a-half hours.
Coen has chosen to use black-and white to bring out the darkness of the plot, the gloominess of dank medieval Scotland and the supernatural aspects. His staging reflects that the original work is a play.
Frances McDormand in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Photo courtesy of A24.
Bertie Carvel brings the needed gravitas and decency to Banquo, an accomplished man betrayed. Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter franchise) is perfectly cast as Malcom, as is Brendan Gleeson as Duncan.
Coen has enhanced the role of Ross, plugging him in to some situations that add ambiguity to his intentions. Alex Hassell is very good as Ross, maintaining the mystery of whether he is a good guy or a villain.
Kathryn Hunter in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Photo courtesy of A24.
The most extraordinary performance in The Tragedy of Macbeth is that of Kathryn Hunter as the Witches and the Old Man. Hunter’s intensity and the contortions of her body bring a startlingly credible supernatural cast to these characters, which Coen enhances even more with his staging. Look for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Hunter.
I’ll be adding The Tragedy of Macbeth to my Best Shakespeare Movies, along with Roman Polanski’s 1971 Macbeth. Polanski set Shakespeare’s definitive study of vaulting ambition in an especially dank and gloomy medieval Scotland. Unsurprisingly for a Polanski film, the witches and Macbeth’s visions are nightmarishly trippy. And Polanski makes Birnam Wood march on film as Shakespeare could not have dreamt of doing on stage. As Lady Macbeth, Francesca Annis played the sleepwalking scene nude.
The Tragedy of Macbeth is brilliant. It is streaming on AppleTV and playing in a few art house theaters.
Themo Melikidze as Horatio and Andrew Burdette as Hamlet in HAMLET/HORATIO
In Hamlet/Horatio, director Paul Warner and writer David Vando put a new twist on Shakepeare’s Hamlet. Warner and Vando gives us a Hamlet from the point of view of Hamlet’s bestie Horatio (Themo Melikidze), as he fulfills his promise to retell the tragic fate of his friend. That means that it’s not from Hamlet’s the internal point of view of Hamlet himself (Andrew Burdette), as he simmers in inner turmoil.
The result is almost soliloquy-free, and many famous lines are not spoken. This is decidedly NOT a Cliff Notes version; Warner and Vando have intentionally left out some stuff that WILL be on the test.
Hamlet is generally thought of as a character-driven story about Hamlet’s angst and indecision. We all know that Hamlet has good reason to be depressed and angry at his father’s death and the usurpation by his uncle. By focusing on Horatio’s retelling of his friend’s story, the spotlight is on the external plot – how Hamlet was wronged by treachery, seeks redress, and how, tragically, almost everyone winds up dead.
Hamlet is not my favorite Shakespeare play because I’m generally ambivalent to Hamlet wringing his hands for two or three hours. Still, I missed that aspect in Hamlet/Horatio. Hamlet/Horatiodoes succeed with the Closet scene and the Gravedigger scene; both are exceptionally good. Does Hamlet need a refreshing? Why, sure. Kenneth Branagh’s fine 1996 unabridged movie version had a running time of four hours, two minutes, and IMO that’s just too long for a movie. And, as Warner points out, it’s not the most accessible play for a modern audience. In contrast to Branagh’s and other movie versions, Hamlet/Horatio is a remarkably crisp 101 minutes.
Joe Menino plays Polonius as ridiculously devoid of self-awareness, but without the usual broad comedy. Menino’s performance is very effective and still funny. Just because Polonius never recognizes that he is a pompous blowhard, you don’t need to play him as Foghorn Leghorn. The actors Anna Maria Cianciulli, as Gertrude, and Wayne Stephens, as Laertes, are very good.
Yesterday, I published my own list of Best Shakespeare Movies. Hamlet/Horatio will be available to stream on June 1.
The first four are the gold standard of Shakespeare movies: Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 Romeo and Juliet, Akira Kurosawa’s 1985 Ran, Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 Henry V and Orson Welles’ 1965 Chimes at Midnight.
THE VERY BEST
Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey in ROMEO AND JULIET. Photo by Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock.
Romeo and Juliet (1968): The director Franco Zeffirelli made the highly original choice to cast actual teenage actors in what is supposed to be a story of teen passion, with its hormone-driven urgency. He also chose to depict sex in a romance. The film benefits from a magnificent score by Nino Rota. It’s also an exceptionally beautiful film, which won Oscars for cinematography and costume design. The luminous Olivia Hussey plays Juliet. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Tatsuya Nakadai (right) in RAN
Ran (1985): The great director Akira Kurosawa set King Lear in feudal Japan. Kurosawa perfectly captures the vanity of the old king and his shock of his betrayal. This is one of the most visually spectacular films of all time, and certainly the most cinematic of Shakespeare films. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Christopher Ravenscroft, Brian Blessed and Kenneth Branagh in HENRY V
Henry V (1989): The actor and director Kenneth Branagh is the best modern interpreter of Shakespeare (and shows up on this list three times). Branagh gives us a Henry that is not just a Dead White Guy, but a young and impulsive king, fueled more by personal ambition and testosterone than national interest. Branagh’s St. Crispin’s Day speech is superb. As in all of Branagh’s adaptations, there is a solid cast, this one includes Brian Blessed, Derek Jacobi, Paul Schofield, Ian Holm, Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane and, in a very early performance, Christian Bale. Vudu, Redbox and few others.
Orson Welles and Keith Baxter in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Chimes at Midnight: Orson Welles’ Shakespearean masterpiece. Welles’ genius was in braiding together parts of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, some Richard III, Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor into a cohesive story of what he called “betrayal of friendship”. There’s a thrilling medieval battle scene, and when the friendship is betrayed, it’s devastating.
Chimes at Midnight was extremely hard to find until very recently, except for a bootleg on YouTube and a 2015 DVD released in the UK. It’s still not available to rent on DVD. Fortunately, Chimes at Midnight has become available to stream on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and FilmStruck. And, of course, it plays occasionally on Turner Classic Movies.
THE REST OF THE BEST
Francesca Annis and Jon Finch in MACBETH
Macbeth (1971): Roman Polanski set Shakespeare’s definitive study of vaulting ambition in an especially dank and gloomy medieval Scotland. Unsurprisingly for a Polanski film, the witches and Macbeth’s visions are nightmarishly trippy. And Polanski makes Birnam Wood march on film as Shakespeare could not have dreamt of doing on stage. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Kenneth Branagh in HAMLET
Hamlet (1996): Kenneth Branagh reshuffled the deck by setting his unabridged (242 minutes) Hamlet, not in a gloomy medieval castle, but in an opulent 19th century palace – and shot in the real Blenheim Palace. It’s another impressive British cast featuring Branagh along with Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, Nicholas Farrell, Brian Blessed and Kate Winslet; John Gielgud, Richard Attenborough and Judi Dench all show up, along with the decidedly non-British Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Charlton Heston, Jack Lemmon and Gerard Depardieu. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Ian McKellen in RICHARD III
Richard III (1995): This version stars Ian McKellen as Shakespeare’s most deliciously unashamed bad guy. The most interesting artistic choice here is that it is set in a fictional 1930s fascist Britain. Vudu.
Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Much Ado About Nothing(2013): Director Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) takes a break from pop with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. It’s set in current times (with iPods and cupcakes) and filmed in black and white at Whedon’s Santa Monica home. It worked for me. Whedon’s version brings out the screwball comedy sensibility of the tale. Indeed, there’s really nothing uniquely 16th century about the plot: one couple is perfectly matched but they think that they despise each other, another couple is head over heels in love and a mean, unhappy villain wants to break up the romance. It’s all good fun, and there’s no need to review the play before enjoying it. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Much Ado About Nothing (1993): Comparatively few of Shakespeare’s comedies have become good movies, but Kenneth Branagh made the best of the good ones. Set in sunny Tuscany, this is a visually and thematically bright film. The best part, of course, is the war of wits between Branagh and then-wife Emma Thompson. They are surrounded by a typically excellent Branagh cast – Denzel Washington, Imelda Staunton, Brian Blessed and Kate Beckinsale. Unfortunately, Keanu Reeves has also wandered into to this movie and glowers a lot for no apparent reason. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Ralph Fiennes in CORIOLANUS
Coriolanus (2012): The actor/director Ralph Fiennes has done well to set Shakespeare’s tale of ancient Rome into the present. This story of war and politics comes alive in today’s world of cable television news, with its crawling captions and pundits, protest demonstrations and soldiers in Humvees. By stripping away the swords and togas, Fiennes helps us recognize the ambition, personal stubbornness, political treachery and the fickleness of public opinion at the core of the story. Coriolanus benefits from splendid performances by Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Cox. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Al Pacino in MERCHANT OF VENICE
Merchant of Venice (2004): Amid the robes of medieval Venice, the actor Al Pacino puts a modern take on Shylock in this fine adaptation. This film addresses antisemitism with an added opening that explicitly describes persecution of Jews in medieval Venice = and Pacino eschews the traditional and offensive fake nose. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Al Pacino in LOOKING FOR RICHARD
Looking for Richard (1996): This is an excellent documentary of the actor Al Pacino’s process in developing his lead portrayal in a stage production of Richard III. It’s not just about the hump. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
The Taming of the Shrew (1967): Franco Zeffirelli makes the list again with this vibrant and boisterous film. Who to star in this battle of the sexes? Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, by all accounts, shared a disorderly relationship marked with passion, humor and tumultuous upheavals. All of that comes through in their portrayals of two type A personalities crashing into romance. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Gwyneth Paltow and Joseph Fiennes in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
Shakespeare in Love (1998): Well, this did win the Best Picture Oscar. It’s also very funny, and wonderfully takes us into the grimy world of Elizabethan show biz; as in Hollywood, the writer (Joseph Fiennes as Will himself) is low man on the totem pole. Geoffrey Rush is excellent as a producer, and Gwyneth Paltow, Tom Wilkinson and Judi Dench all sparkle. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
And NOT on this list…
Okay, why is there no Laurence Olivier (Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III, Othello)? And why aren’t Orson Welles’ Othello and Macbeth on this list? Indeed, Olivier was greatest Shakespearean stage actor of his age and made several movies that capture those performances. I guess that it’s a just matter of taste. To my contemporary eye, Olivier’s grab-the-skull-and-gesture-dramatically-and-start-declaiming style of acting just doesn’t work for me.
Laurence Olivier as HAMLET
And Welles? Welles aspired to make groundbreaking cinematic Shakespeare. Unfortunately, Welles’ artistic self-indulgence had frozen him out of Hollywood financing. Therefore, his low-budget indies Othello and Macbeth are too low-budget, and the low production values are distracting. But his Chimes at Midnight makes up for it – another Welles masterpiece.
In the taut 76 minutes of Caesar Must Die, convicts in an Italian maximum security prison put on a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Every year, there’s a drama laboratory at this prison. It turns out that Julius Caesar is a perfect choice.
Julius Caesar is, most of all, a play about high stakes. And high stakes, where a decision can result in life or death or power or failure or freedom or incarceration, is something these guys profoundly understand – and have had time to reflect upon. During rehearsal, one actor snaps at the director, “I’ve been in here for 20 tears, and you’re telling me not to waste time?”. When Cassius states that he has wagered his life on the outcome of one battle and lost, the line is more powerful because we know the actor playing Cassius is himself a lifer.
When the prisoners audition, we learn that their sentences range from 14 years to “life meaning life”. Most of them are naturalistic and very effective actors. The guy who plays Caesar is especially powerful in his acting and reacting.
The Julius Caesar story unfolds in black-and-white as the prisoners rehearse and then play the early scenes in the contemporary prison setting. Segments from the performance itself – about 15 minutes worth – are filmed in color.
It all works very well as a successful Shakespeare movie – and as a prison movie, too. Caesar Must Die is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on Netflix Instant, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube and Google Play.
Orson Welles and Keith Baxter in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
The great auteur Orson Welles loved Shakespeare and made three Shakespearean movies, of which Chimes at Midnight is the masterpiece. Welles’ genius was in braiding together parts of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, some Richard III, Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor into a cohesive story of what he called “betrayal of friendship”. You can watch Chimes at Midnight Wednesday on Turner Classic Movies.
Welles himself vividly plays the recurring Shakespearean character of Sir John Falstaff.
Falstaff is a rogue knight, a shameless braggart and robustly debauched.
The young Prince Hal (Keith Baxter), the future King Henry V, is sowing his wild oats, and he is in the market for a dissolute companion. To the disgust of Hal’s severe father, King Henry IV (John Gielgud), Hal and Falstaff are carousing buddies, their fast friendship forged in taverns with plentiful spirits and women of easy virtue. (Falstaff’s wench is played by Jeanne Moreau.)
Orson Welles and Jeanne Moreau in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
There’s plenty of palace intrigue interwoven with the comic pranks and partying by the rascal Hal and his favorite scoundrel Falstaff. Falstaff even does mocking impressions of Henry IV.
CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Chimes at Midnight features an amazing 12-minute battle scene beginning at the 55 minute mark. Somehow Welles was able to afford 150 extras and was able to use them and his camera to create a battle scene as effective as the ones in Braveheart and Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V. Welles doesn’t pull any punches in depicting the brutality of medieval warfare. The initial horse charge is followed by the chaos of hacking and clubbing. The combatants become a roiling cauldron of lethal mayhem. In all the fog of war, it’s still easy to follow Falstaff in his size XXXL armor. Welles’ Falstaff believes that honor is merely ornamental and not worth sacrificing one’s life for. No hero, Falstaff.
CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
Finally, Henry IV dies and Prince Hal will ascend the throne. Falstaff thinks he’s won the lottery, but a king can’t afford sloppy bad habits. Hal rejects vanity, of which Falstaff is the signal emblem. Hal rebuffs Falstaff with Presume not that I am the thing I was and banishes him. Falstaff is stunned – but then proud of his mentee. Defeated in the end, Welles’ eyes show us his pride and simultaneous disappointment. This high point of Chimes at Midnight is also probably Welles’ best moment as an actor.
The broad, raucous comedy in Chimes at Midnight shows us what it must have like to see Shakespeare’s words performed in the rowdy Globe Theater. Shot in Spain with authentic medieval settings, Chimes at Midnight looks very good for a low, low-budget film. It is narrated by Ralph Richardson.
Chimes at Midnight was extremely hard to find until very recently, except for a bootleg on YouTube and a 2015 DVD released in the UK. It’s still not available to rent on DVD. Fortunately, Chimes at Midnight has become available to stream on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and FilmStruck. And, of course, it plays occasionally on Turner Classic Movies where it will be featured on January 17.
In the madcap Korean comedy Curtain Call, a talent-challenged theater troupe is about to go under. The company specializes in soft porn, and they are so bad that – even though they are simulating sex on stage – they still can’t sell enough tickets. In desperation, they enter a competition to put on Korea’s best version of Hamlet.
It’s a motley crew. There’s the Bieber-coiffed millennial who thinks that he’s a method actor. One veteran suffers from being public recognized for his trademark “Shag Shag Shake It”. They add an aged career Shakespearean who can’t always remember which play he’s in right now. For personal reasons, the theater company owner foists upon them an inexperienced ingenue who refuses to speak anything except her lines. In a seemingly hopeless quest to master the elevated source material, these bottom feeders become scrappy underdogs.
Curtain Call is a pleasant enough diversion, with some happily ribald moments. Audience members who know their Shakespeare will find the Hamlet scenes even funnier. The trailer is in Korean, but you’ll get the idea.
Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender in MACBETH
Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard star in Justin Kurzeil’s take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth – sexier and more psychological than most versions and very medieval.
In interviews, Fassbender has said that his Macbeth suffers from battlefield PTSD. As we see in this version of Macbeth, medieval warfare consisted of muddy guys rushing each other to hack, stab and bludgeon each other to death. Mostly, it seems, to hack. The soldiers wear facial warpaint that looks like it would if smeared on by men just before a battle.
Macbeth comes already damaged. Unlike Richard III, a Shakespearean villain who is just deliciously evil to the core, Macbeth is troubled, a man whose “dreams abuse the curtain of sleep.” But, as he is haunted by his own atrocities (especially killing his most loyal friend Banquo after Macbeth has already obtained the crown), Macbeth decompensates.
Lady Macbeth is the prototype of social climbers and strivers, pushing her hubbie to the forefront no matter the requisite carnage. Cotillard’s Lady Macbeth uses sex to persuade him on a course of action, and he exhales a post-orgasmic “settled” in agreement with her plot. After all, what’s sexier than power? Hearing Macbeth’s “I have done the deed” gets Lady Macbeth breathing really hard.
Both of them have fits in which they wander the windswept highlands in their sleepwear. Even with her over-the-top ruthlessness, Lady Macbeth starts out more stable and functional, trying valiantly to distract the court from gauging Macbeth’s ever more tottering sanity. But finally, the totality of their misdeeds becomes too heavy for even her to bear. Fassbender and Cotillard are excellent. So are Paddy Considine as Banquo and Sean Harris as Macduff.
All of the classic Macbethisms are here – “the be all and end all”, “out, damn spot!”, “unsex me here”, “the poisoned chalice” and “vaulting ambition”. That last term – the central subject of Macbeth – is a marvel of precision because ambition requires one to vault over and past other people. Ruthlessness is acting without or despite empathy for others. Those who are not sociopaths can be haunted by their own vaulting acts of ruthlessness. Kurzeil asks us to make that assessment of the two lead characters.
I really like Shakespeare movies because there are ways to advance Shakepeare’s stories that you just can’t do on stage. Realistic medieval filth is one. Large battle scenes, partially in slow motion is another. And Macbeth and Banquo are able to quietly reflect on their foretold futures while bedding down on the battlefield, not while pacing the stage and speaking loud enough for a live audience to hear. The soundtrack is filled with reedy drones that evoke bagpipes and covey dread and moral bleakness. (See my Best Shakespeare Movies – I’ll be adding this movie to that list.)
In just his second feature, Australian director Justin Kurzeil consistently make superb choices. Instead of novelties, the witches are spooky and mostly silent witnesses to the story; when Macbeth’s fortune is complete, they turn silently and melt away. I prefer the traditional way that Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle over Kurzeil’s solution, but’s that’s just me. The final shots are wholly original and leave us with a remind of the historical consequences yet to come.
Kurzeil’s Macbeth is well-crafted and thought-provoking, and one of the very best Shakespeare movies.
In the taut 76 minutes of Caesar Must Die, convicts in an Italian maximum security prison put on a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Every year, there’s a drama laboratory at this prison. It turns out that Julius Caesar is a perfect choice.
Julius Caesar is, most of all, a play about high stakes. And high stakes, where a decision can result in life or death or power or failure or freedom or incarceration, is something these guys profoundly understand – and have time to reflect upon. During rehearsal, one actor snaps at the director, “I’ve been in here for 20 tears, and you’re telling me not to waste time?”. When Cassius states that he has wagered his life on the outcome of one battle and lost, the line is more powerful because we know the actor playing Cassius is himself a lifer.
When the prisoners audition, we learn that their sentences range from 14 years to “life meaning life”. Most of them are naturalistic and very effective actors. The guy who plays Caesar is especially powerful in his acting and reacting.
The Julius Caesar story unfolds in black-and-white as the prisoners rehearse and then play the early scenes in the contemporary prison setting. Segments from the performance itself – about 15 minutes – are filmed in color.
It all works very well as a very successful Shakespeare movie – and as a prison movie, too. Caesar Must Die is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on Netflix Instant, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and Hulu.
Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Director Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) takes a break from pop with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. It’s set in current times (with iPods and cupcakes) and filmed in black and white at Whedon’s Santa Monica home. It worked for me.
Whedon told NPR “Some people won’t see Shakespeare because they don’t believe there’s characters in them, they think it’s, you know, homework.” Whedon’s version brings out the screwball comedy sensibility of the tale. Indeed, there’s really nothing uniquely 16th century about the plot: one couple is perfectly matched but they think that they despise each other, another couple is head over heels in love and a mean, unhappy villain wants to break up the romance. As the primary couple who wage “a merry war” of wit, Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker keep up with the quick-paced barbed patter and show a gift for flopping-on-the-floor physical humor. Nathan Fillion hilariously deadpans the malapropisms of Dogberry, here the dimmest supervising rent-a-cop in English literature.
[Note: There’s also some serious home and party decorating/staging porn for the HGTV set.]
It’s all good fun, and there’s no need to review the play before enjoying it. In fact, I’m adding it to my list of Best Shakespeare Movies. Much Ado About Nothing is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and other VOD outlets.
Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Director Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) takes a break from pop with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. It’s set in current times (with iPods and cupcakes) and filmed in black and white at Whedon’s Santa Monica home. It worked for me.
Whedon told NPR “Some people won’t see Shakespeare because they don’t believe there’s characters in them, they think it’s, you know, homework.” Whedon’s version brings out the screwball comedy sensibility of the tale. Indeed, there’s really nothing uniquely 16th century about the plot: one couple is perfectly matched but they think that they despise each other, another couple is head over heels in love and a mean, unhappy villain wants to break up the romance. As the primary couple who wage “a merry war” of wit, Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker keep up with the quickpaced barbed patter and show a gift for flopping-on-the-floor physical humor. Nathan Fillion hilariously deadpans the malapropisms of Dogberry, here the dimmest supervising rent-a-cop in English literature.
[Note: There’s also some serious home and party decorating/staging porn for the HGTV set.]
It’s all good fun, and there’s no need to review the play before enjoying it. In fact, I’m adding it to my list of Best Shakespeare Movies.
