(rated R, 111 mins.)
“To be or not to be; that is the question…” and the answer can be found … in a nearby Blockbuster video store? It can be in this updated version of Shakespeare’s most tragic of stories set now in a world of laptops and limousines, circa 2000. That’s where Ethan Hawke roams the aisles in question of his fate, making for an almost haunting and strangely non-escape situation, stuck among the overbearing aisles of action rentals. In this story, the President of the Denmark Corporation was just found dead, and his wife remarried the man suspected of the murder. Nobody is suffering more than her son Hamlet-who is not only determined to avenge his father’s murder but who is also in love with the enchanting but forbidden Ophelia. Set in New York City, the film also stars Kyle MacLachlan as Claudius, Sam Shepard as the ghost of Hamlet’s father (who is fabulous by the way, reciting poetry), and Diane Venora as Gertrude. But the surprise of this stylish flick is Bill Murray as Ophelia’s father, Polonius. The only problem with the movie is Julia Stiles as Ophelia who recites her lines with either a muted voice or without realizing Shakespeare intended for them to have meaning. Dah.
