Very good version of a great play

Rating: 9/10 (14 December 2015)

Macbeth (2015/I) was directed by Justin Kurzel. It stars Michael Fassbender as Macbeth, and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth. This is a serious attempt to make a excellent movie from one of the world's greatest plays. It succeeds on some levels, and fails on other levels.
Naturally, director Kurzel "opens up" the drama by using shots of the barren moors and desolate shores of Scotland. He has chosen two highly talented actors to play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Fassbender is brilliant. I would never have thought of choosing Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth, but she's a great actor and she does a wonderful job. Kurzel's handling of the three weird sisters is outstanding, although for some reason he adds a young girl to the group.
Some of the things I think Kurzel did wrong involve changing Shakespeare's play for--to me-- inexplicable reasons. For example, one of the great theatrical scenes in the world is Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene. Orson Welles got it wrong--the scene takes place in a shapeless, formless cave. (But Welles didn't have money for a proper set of a room within a castle.)
Roman Polanski got it right--a room in a castle, with the maid and doctor in attendance. (OK--Lady Macbeth is nude, but the scene is played for madness, not sexuality.)
Kurzel turns this great scene into a soliloquy. It doesn't work. This is an example of Shakespeare's genius betrayed. We need the maid and the doctor because someone has to witness the scene and recognize what Lady Macbeth is unwittingly telling us. Why change it when it works so well?
Similarly, one of Shakespeare's most horrific scenes is the slaughter of MacDuff's family. This scene is perfect, and shouldn't be tampered with. Kurzel shows Lady MacDuff and two of her children captured, and then burned alive while MacBeth is watching. The scene as Shakespeare wrote it is fine the way it is--horrible but realistic. It has worked for 400 years. Who decided we needed something better?
Finally, the sound quality was such that some of the dialog was unintelligible. Everyone has some trouble understanding some of Shakespeare's lines, but at least you should be able to hear them. (This wasn't just my problem. After the movie, several people commented about this, as did some reviewers.)
We saw this film at Rochester's Little Theatre. It will work better on the large screen than the small screen. This version of Macbeth is certainly good enough to seek out and watch. I was frustrated because it came so close to being a historically important version, but didn't quite get there.