I liked how some soliloquies became whispered voice-overs, such as when Hamlet is contemplating stabbing Claudius in the ear in the confessional. Nor do I think it was necessary to give Yorick buck teeth that would match his unearthed skull (but poorly). I like John Gielgud and Judy Dench, but having them appear as Priam and Hecuba, as the Player King recites his emotional soliloquy about the death of Priam during the fall of Troy, felt shoehorned-in and distracting.īad make-up choices: Hamlet Sr.’s contact lenses made sense as a “perturbed spirit,” but in the flashbacks, too? WTF? But Brian Blessed was a force of nature as the ghost. I liked Billy Crystal as the first gravedigger I thought Robin Williams was a poor choice for Osric (or to be in a Shakespeare film, period). Charlton Heston was pitch-perfect as the Player King. I like Jack Lemmon, but he just didn’t fit as one of the guards. This scene almost always gets cut, as far as I know, but it’s important to make the audience understand how disgusting Claudius’ favorite retainer is (which is a poor reflection on the king), and why we shouldn’t put too much stock in the often-quoted homilies that come out of his mouth: “Neither a borrower, nor a lender, be ” and “To thine own self be true.” Without this scene, people don’t understand how ironic these homilies are coming from this mealymouth, and don’t understand nearly as well just how damn funny it is when Hamlet later calls Polonius, to his face, a “fishmonger” (pimp)-particularly as Polonius and Claudius just tried to throw Ophelia in Hamlet’s path. I love how we get to see the scene where Polonius instructs Reynaldo (played by Gérard Depardieu) to follow Laertes to Paris to spy on him- his own son! To spy on him, and to slander him to ferret out any confidences of Laertes’ presumed perfidies and infidelities. Kate Winslet was serviceable as Ophelia, but I have a friend who argues Helena Bonham Carter’s Ophelia was more believable, more pitiable, when the death of her father drives her mad in the Franco Zeffirelli version (the one that starred Mel Gibson). I love it because I’m a fan of Branagh’s work and it’s the whole play, which is almost never done.

Hamlet full movie 1996