An austere production

Rating: 3/10 (5 October 2015)

I am a Shakespeare, film and theatre lover of many seasons and I write this as one who has seen many 'worthy' productions that blew their budget in the first scene. This is one.
If you like your poetry declaimed by a still figure, albeit with facial contortions and an occasional fondle, then you will love this. If you either enjoy theatrical performance or cinematic epic, this is not going to excite you.
Macbeth is a serious tragedy. It confronts issues such as anxiety, ambition, political intrigue, the corruptive nature of power, consequence, temptation, equivocation, the divinity of legitimate kings and so on. This film tells the story with very little emphasis on any of that. Sure, you get lots of set-piece speech delivery, often surrounded by inanimate extras, but little else.
It never comes alive at any point. A great disappointment.