Directed by Justin Kurzel, the 2015 release of Macbeth stars Michael
Fassbender
as Macbeth and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth.
There are a ton of blood and guts in this movie. Many of the action
scenes have slow-motion insets, which for me were better than the jerky
camera movement of the close-up fighting scenes, but still felt weird
inside the film.
This is the traditional Macbeth story-line, with the typical language of
the original play. The accents of most of the actors were very heavy,
making it quite difficult to follow the actual dialogue.
I was able to follow the story because I know the basic premise of
Hamlet (who doesn’t?) but if I hadn’t basically known what the story was
about, and had to rely solely on the spoken words in the film, I would
have been dreadfully lost.
Marion Cotillard plays a very good conniving, plotting Lady Macbeth, and
Michael Fassbender does a great job of portraying a manipulated, power
hungry man, being driven mad by his atrocities.
The supporting cast gave great performances as well. The three witches
were played by Lynn Kennedy, Seylan Baxter, and Seylan Mhairi Baxter.
They were sufficiently creepy and mysterious to add the right amount of
darkness to their roles, without overpowering the concept that had
Hamlet interpreted their predictions differently, the entire story may
have gone differently.
There were parts of the movie that I held my breath at, and felt myself
responding emotionally to, but it would be very hard NOT to feel some
sort of emotion at watching a family being burned at the stake at the
whim of a mad-man.
If I were a die-hard Macbeth or Shakespeare fan, I likely would have
enjoyed the film far more. On the other hand, a die-hard Shakespeare fan
probably would have been upset at some of the pieces that were trimmed
from the famous lines of the original (“something wicked this way comes”
was noticeably absent)
Overall I would give this movie 2 out of 5 stars, based on the hard time
I had understanding the dialogue. If I had been able to not have had to
concentrate so hard to understand what was being said, I would have
given it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
