Timothy Spall and Art Malik star alongside Riz Ahmed in Aneil Karia’s retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy for cinema screens.
The Guardian: **** “Overall, this is an intelligent and focused account and one which, at least at first, allows you to ask the question: what if Claudius, however unscrupulous and predatory, is in fact innocent of murder? What if the ghost and his accusation is Hamlet’s hallucinatory delusion, a psychosexual projection of his own disgust? There’s a rigorous chill to this Hamlet.”
The FT: **** “That only turns up the spotlight on Ahmed. He responds with a killer performance. Malik and Chaddha are very good; likewise Morfydd Clark as Ophelia and Timothy Spall as Polonius. But this is Ahmed’s film, his Hamlet a dervish of fury and sorrow, whirring on the brink.”
Time Out: *** “It’s powerful, beautifully shot and burningly emotional. It’s a bit lacking in vibrancy: an underrated fact about Hamlet is that it’s quite amusing, but that’s mostly dispensed with here, and Timothy Spall’s menacing, enforcer-ish Polonius struggles to really make an impression with all his funny lines cut.”
Screen Daily.com: “But this Hamlet’s star is clearly Ahmed, who is commanding as a meagre young man whose growing rage will result in bloodshed. Karia and Lesslie tinker with the storyline in the film’s second half, creating surprises for viewers who know the text well. But the changes are in service to Ahmed’s vision of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, which in this telling has the steely air of cold destiny — as if the terrible events that will occur had been determined long ago.”
The Upcoming: **** “While far from accurate, the changes made do work in the world that Karia and Lesslie have built in this fresh take on the classic tragedy by Shakespeare. With alluring visual flourish and captivating performances, Hamlet simply astounds.”
Metro.co.uk: **** 1/2 “I would argue that, in a sea of rinse and repeat Hamlets often told from the same Western-centric lens, this offers a desperately needed breath of fresh air, even if it is not perfect.”
The Peoplesmovies.com: “Riz Ahmed has never been better. While some audiences might approach Shakespeare with hesitation, Ahmed’s delivery of the text is so studied and immersive that he could turn his audience into literature scholars without them even realising it.”
The Hollywood Reporter: “Karia also directed the 12-minute film The Long Goodbye, starring Ahmed. They wrote it together and as its producers won the 2022 Oscar for Best Live Action Short. It’s a sharp, harrowing piece about a South Asian family dragged out of their house by a right-wing militia, and it ends with Ahmed reciting a long rap-like poem. That combination of drama and poetry should have translated well to Hamlet, so it’s especially disappointing that their version, thoughtfully conceived though it is, is so uneven.”
Hamlet is out in cinemas now.