Macbeth: the new one with Denzel Washington in the title role and Frances McDormand as Lady M. She is perhaps best known as the police officer in Fargo (for which she got an one of her 4 Oscars). Both leads are superb ! Other stand outs amongst the cast are Brendan Glesson as King Duncan who brings a lot of dignity and power to a relatively small role, and Kathryn Hunter outstanding and very physical as (all three) witche. (we'd previously seen her as Timon in "Timon of Athens" at the RSC and she was great in that too)
Basically it's done almost as a beautifully filmed (black and white) stage play albeit with bigger sets and stylised scenes of mist or snow. One great thing for me is the lines are all delivered very clearly, important for Shakespeare as the words are the whole point after all, though some productions rush or mumble.
Some particularly good and clever staging decisions "this dagger I see before me" is a glistening door handle, which emphasises MacBeth's inner turmoil, and likewise the Banquo's ghost scene, whilst still showing Banquo to the audience, he is only a trapped crow as far as the guests are concerned. The witches' second appearance is in the castle with the "bubbling cauldron" of the spell being a conjured up pool on the tiled floor, which disappears as other character come on stage. All these help keep it real for a modern audience.
I know Macbeth quite well having seen it on stage or screen maybe 10 ten times and I was gripped from start to finish.
By way of contrast the other Macbeth film from a couple of years back, whilst beautiful to look at with its Isle of Skye backdrop, managed to make a gripping action play boring, which takes some doing. It was also disjointed and barely comprehensible and had I not known the play I don't think I'd have even known what was going on! The clarity and tightness of this one was such a contrast
Caveat, this is more like a filmed play that a film proper, but for a straightforward very well done version of Macbeth, this is pretty damned good.
For me 9/10
. It was all CGI and not my favourite superhero type film .
