Stellar visuals and weighty performances make for good Shakespeare

Rating: 9/10 (29 May 2016)

Being completely bowled over by Adam Arkapaw's visuals, I was unprepared for the crushing weight in the performances of Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. The former, who is admittedly my favorite working actor, impressed me with both his intensity and his restraint. He could have opted to play Macbeth's insanity in a wide eyed bat-dung homage to Mel Gibson's Hamlet. Many actors are overwhelmed by Shakespeare and, as a result, deliver turgid dribbling performances. Whereas for the most part Fassbender's Macbeth seethes and intensely eyes the object of his anger. Marion Cotillard absolutely killed it as Lady Macbeth. Even if this Lady Macbeth was much changed from what we're used to. In earlier adaptations, and I believe the original source, she was much more manipulative. It was almost as if she forced Macbeth's hand. That's not so in Justin Kurzel's interpretation. Here the two are equally yoked.