Great atmospherics, but no poetry!

Rating: 4/10 (3 September 2017)

When staging Shakespeare for the cinema, directors have two obvious choices: one, to go with a straightforward theatrical production, and the other, to use the play as the starting material for a screenplay conceived for the purpose. In this version of 'Macbeth', Justin Kurzel clearly takes the second approach. He certainly gets the atmospherics right, and Michael Fassbinder is exactly the sort of actor you would think would be able to make the title role his own. What is lost, however, is the poetry, speeches are mumbled rather than disclaimed, and you might hardly recognise that this was a play written in verse. To me, the result is simply rather dull, and quite possible, hard to follow if you didn't already know the story (though for some reason, the minor detail relating to the prophesy about Macbeth's killer - that he would not be of "woman born" - seems to be repeated dozens of times). It's true, writing plays in verse is an outdated convention - but the reason we still watch Shakespeare is because he was so damn good at it, and what's left once that is abandoned is not nearly as interesting. I'd recommend the version with Patrick Stewart from a few years back, no less intense, but much more Shakespearian.