An excellent film

Rating: 9/10 (24 March 2012)

These days Shakespeare is either dreary endless remakes of Hamlet and Kenneth Branagh films, or it's the glitzy Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet. Corioloanus is neither of those.
The language is the original Shakespeare (which most people despair of), so lot's of thous and wherefores etc, but it's never dull. Rather, apart from one or two scenes, the dialogue is fleet and sharp. Some of it puts even the best scriptwriter to absolute shame for it's cutting, razor edge delivery.
The setting is modernised, but not glam like Luhrman's efforts. You can see the original play behind the film, yet it works surprisingly well. By that I mean that you can tell that some scenes were originally set in a Roman-style forum, for instance. However, it translates very well, and has a dignified and serious tone.
There's even a modern-day battle scene (with Marine-like soldiers) and a desperate fight to the death between the two main characters.
Ralph Fiennes is superb in the titular role. Usually Hollywood actors do Shakespeare in order to get some respect, but Fiennes (also as director) has crafted a great film. Gerard Butler does equally as well, although his role is limited due to the nature of the script and story. This is Caius Martius Coriolanus' story, and he is the focus of it.
What really appealed for me here was the characters. I know, I know. "Characters" are what people speak of when describing boring films. Most kiddies these days just want giant robots and explosions, but it's interesting to watch this film after seeing "John Carter" (which I also didn't mind). Whereas the lead in "John Carter" had no facial expressions to speak of, Fiennes and Butler positively reek of emotion and depth. Gerard Butler is really only a supporting role, but he does it well.
Shakespeare has survived 400 years precisely because he wrote about people well. Most of the crud Hollywood dishes out will be forgotten in the space of a year.
9 our of 10 is pretty high for me, but I really enjoyed this film. See Coriolanus for something different and refreshing in between the expressionless 'A' list actors of today and the mindless explosions of the next Michael Bay extravaganza.