Beautiful cinematography, mediocre everything else

Rating: 4/10 (27 June 2016)

Finally got around to watching this Amazon and StudioCanal produced rendition of one of Shakespeare's most iconic plays. The best way to describe this version - the third I have seen - is as "Shakespeare meets Game of Thrones." Not surprising they took this approach seeing the success of that dark fantasy series. Unfortunately, as with Game of Thrones, what results is something dark, violent, and ultimately less than satisfying.
First, this production needs to be applauded just for staying in an appropriately medieval setting, as opposed to all the anachronistic versions floating around out there that move the action to 20th Century Eastern Europe, the Victorian era, or some other inappropriate time period for the subject matter. What is more, this production should be applauded for the wonderful cinematography by Adam Arkapaw. This is a beautifully shot movie that uses the Scottish Highlands to wonderful effect in creating Macbeth's nightmarish reality. Truly excellent work here.
Sadly, that is about all good I can say about this interpretation. My first gripe is that Shakespeare's play has been so truncated here that it loses much of its emotional impact. Not only have some key scenes been completely removed, but other sections has been so compressed that at times they just don't make much sense. For example, in this version Macbeth's decline from nobility to regicide is so swift as to be bewildering. Again, even though this is the third interpretation of Macbeth that I have seen, I found myself getting confused at times because the story was jumping around so much.
Secondly, the acting is mediocre at best. While Michael Fassbender has shown himself to be a very good actor in other films, here he sleepwalks his way through the story as Macbeth, delivering his lines with all the enthusiasm of someone terribly bored and disinterested in the material he has been given. To call his performance "one note" would be, frankly, giving it too much credit. Then there is Marion Cotillard's Lady Macbeth. Unfortunately for the film, Cotillard lacks the sufficient gravitas to be the scheming shrew who was Lady Macbeth. Adding insult to injury, her role has also been so truncated that it might as well not even be there. Instead of being the impetus for Macbeth's fall from grace, she comes across as little more than an indifferent opportunist who is seen to inexplicably swing from craving power at any cost to being bored and then completely disinterested by subsequent events, something that makes her later suicide something of a non sequitur. I suspect this blah interpretation of such an iconic villainess is due to a politically correct impulse to moderate her character. Whatever the reason, this production is severely hampered by thoroughly lackluster and idle performances from key characters.
The last nail in the coffin of this film is the dreadfully slow pacing. I understand that the director was going for a suitably nightmarish approach, but what arrives here is less nightmare and more snooze- fest. Between the droning music and the endless slow motion sequences, I was almost ready to kill Macbeth just to end my suffering. Tone it down, fellas.
Take all that, and add is some needless sexual groping and moaning (no doubt to please the GoT crowd) and a clichéd close-up of Macduff vomiting (an odd thing for an experienced soldier to do after seeing some blood), and what you ultimately have in this version is...well, much ado about nothing. You can seek out much better versions of this play (such as Roman Polanski's 1971 version, and even the more recent Patrick Stewart version which is solely marred by its 20th Century setting).