HAMLET (2025)

I’m not the biggest Shakespeare fan but I was tempted out to the cinema to see this adaptation because it comes in at less than two hours, is set in modern day London, and it stars Riz Ahmed who impressed me in the splendid 'Night Crawler' over ten years earlier. 

I greatly enjoyed it even though I would have got even more out of it had I watched it at home with subtitles on; I did find some of the dialogue going over my head, either through simply not being able to make out the words or not being able to understand Shakespeare's subtlety of thought. 

In particular I struggled with every scene between Hamlet and Polonius, although I did gather that they weren't best buddies.  The latter is played by Timothy Spall who proved that he can play vicious very well.

An advantage of not knowing the play in detail was that I was capable of being surprised, as though I was watching a crime thriller for the first time. This was especially the case in the exciting conclusion.

Not being a Shakespeare scholar I can't speak to what liberties have been take with the text but clearly a lot has been removed (thankfully), presumably to focus on Hamlet himself.  Ahmed plays him as someone on the border of insanity right from the outset, and it's a towering performance since I think he is on screen throughout, largely in closeup.   

In a brilliant touch he gives the 'to be, or not to be' soliloquy whilst driving suicidally fast in a sports car.  

The famous scene in which an acting troupe, at Hamlet's behest, perform a play-within-a-play is cleverly transformed into a mesmerising performance by a dancing troupe during the wedding of Claudius and Gertrude.

Hats off to Michael Lesslie who not only wrote this adaptation but directed it as well.  It's a gripping experience, enhanced by an unobtrusive but effective score. 

All the supporting cast are fine, but I was particularly taken by veteran Art Malik as Claudius, and Morfydd Clark as Ophelia.

Highly recommended.