This Latest Macbeth is Unfortunately Disappointing
by
Kristin Battestella
Director
Justin Kurzel (Snowtown)
helms this 2015 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth
starring
Michael Fassbender as the titular Thane of Glamis and Marion
Cotillard as his grieving wife. Bleak child funeral pyres and a misty
atmosphere match our
witches' prophetic rhymes, and opening scrolls recount the Scottish
war. Calm face painting rituals escalate to war cries, shouting rage,
brutal swords, and battle chaos while slow motion torches and an
intercut sense of stillness add to the trickery and kingly feasting.
At times, these two hours move fast by showing the usually off screen
killings – bringing the Bard's suspense alongside symbolic rain for
the washing of blood, tense confrontations over fatal discoveries,
and one suspicious coronation. Cathedral echoes mirror the growing
power, but our soldier turned king spirals downward with his wife at
his leash. Macbeth's
contemporary
grief and traumatic stress
are
best when the court
intrigue brews, letting the play's innate zing overcome the
pretentious, too arty for the sake of it voiceovers. There's a
somewhat surprising lack of dialogue for, you know, Shakespeare, yet
subtitles are a must to discern all the mumbling and grumpy who is
who. The
modern issues aren't a bad addition, but the contemporary stylishness
becomes counter intuitive to the original drama and period setting.
Though
it holds fast to the
well done historical locales and the ensemble is capable of doing
clear spoken, straight Bard; this Macbeth
never chooses what it really wants to be, ought to be better than it
is, and doesn't seem Shakespearean enough. Had there been updated
dialogue for the recent themes or a present setting with the original
text as in Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus,
Macbeth may
have hit home the relevancy for Shakespeare today. Instead, what
begins as a promising take becomes slow, tiring, subdued, and at arms
length. This tale is not untouchable, but if you are going to
deviate, run with it.
Certainly,
Michael Fassbender (Shame)
looks the battle field bearded, painted, gruff, and game on as
Macbeth. There's no doubt of his warrior skill, but he's confused by
the cryptic coming to pass. Why should Glamis stop at becoming Thane
of Cowdor when the witches also said he would be king? Macbeth loves
his wife and listens to her ambitions, however, their strain is
apparent on top of his battlefield stress and conflicted flashbacks.
He's caught between what's said about him and told to him, what he
wants from his wife, his hidden cowardice, and a whipped position at
home. Macbeth's supposed to be king yet he's repeatedly proving his
manliness as he descends into madness. The dark picture and voiceover
asides, however, make it feel like we don't see Fassbender embodying
the turmoil enough. The language seems unnatural when his accent
waivers, but Macbeth's lack of scenes actually talking to people adds
to the isolation over what he has done – only the camera comes
close as he messes up the kills and leaves his wife to handle the
weapons. Although, I almost would rather not see the king's killing
onscreen, just the traditional daylight discovery and a shady Macbeth
washing. The suspicious snips of the deadly action as he is crowned
are a nicer accent to his sullen deed is done and fair is foul change
as Macbeth festers over the scorpions in his mind. He's losing
control he never had, and Macbeth's a man meant for the battlefield
as his leader commands or the bedroom when his wife says – but not
worthy to be king. Is that his own weakness or the puppeteer wife
behind him? Maybe a bit of both. The unmerited interplay is better
than the arty interference, and the narration in the final battle
scene feels unfair. Use those words for some crazy desperate trash
talk! The lack of a beheading is disappointing, too, an
unsatisfactory end when this Macbeth
is
all about his unraveling headspace. Fassbender was filming Macbeth
amid
the awards flurry for 12
Years a Slave and some
personal tabloid fodder – preoccupations that also perhaps show. I
like the uniqueness of Frank
and Slow West,
but without the refreshing take from First Class, I'm
disinterested in the
latest X-Men
films. The Counselor
fell flat; I have no desire to see Steve
Jobs, The
Light Between the Oceans,
Assassin's Creed,
or Song to Song, and
after years of waiting for Trespass
Against Us,
I'm in no rush now.
Instead, I find myself increasingly enjoying films Fassbender left or
lost, such as Only Lovers Left Alive or
The Force Awakens.
He seems to be at a career crossroads – an
indie darling franchised
with Alien: Covenant
but unknown to the mainstream with precious little box office
success. It's ridiculous
he's against today's new, superior scene chewing television
platforms, and had the upcoming The
Snowman been a serial
caper, I might be more intrigued. While newer viewers may have found
Fassbender over some sort of heartthrob status, I'm more and more
aware that I miss his prime acting and dislike his recent,
disappointing movie making choices.
Of
course, a dead baby adds to Marion Cotillard's (La
Vie en Rose) warped Lady
Macbeth as she waits at home in the dark to hear tell the news of
victory. This Mrs. is vicariously pleased with her husband but angry,
wishing to be unsexed with her milk taken. She's unhappy at home and
stronger in the scheming department than her man – Lady Macbeth has
had to sit back from the glory, but now she has the chance to take
matters into her own hands. She's cruel with nothing else to do but
aide her husband's rise to the top as her own, and the grief of an
heir lost contributes to her twistedness. The childless angle is
implied in the text, and its a relatable connection today. However, I
kind of rather like not knowing why she is so poison bent. I can't
see Natalie Portman for Lady Macbeth as originally cast either, but
Cotillard has no problem with the language barrier as our wife admits
her deceptions. She says she's done her marital job, using her sex to
trap her husband into violence. She wears white for the coronation,
almost appearing in an angelic disguise, putting the crown on Macbeth
and egging him on when he doubts. He reminds her how her barrenness
ruins their monarchy progeny, but the intercut table top panting and
killer planning is an unnecessary sexual visual. There's enough
reading between the lines to know Lady Macbeth manipulates him by not
putting out and refusing his touch. She is in charge, not seeing them
have any sexual intimacy is a better indication of his emasculation.
Yet for all her behind the scenes power, Lady Macbeth is a fallen
figure, an unwelcomed mother with no child save her corrupt
ruthlessness. She faces her guilt in a tearful church soliloquy where
the camera rightfully remains on her mea culpa realizations.
Sadly,
Macbeth's supporting
cast feels wasted, and we hardly see usual bad boy Sean Harris (The
Borgias) as good guy
Macduff. He's enraged over the king's death, throwing up and
shouting. He's battle ready and on his game for the finale yet never
really built up as a proper rival. Likewise, I feel like I didn't
even see Paddy Considine (Hot
Fuzz) as Banquo until he
died. His ghost is hardly present in favor of other anonymous dead
boys on the battlefield apparitions, leaving the internalized Macbeth
with no real friendly reflection or sounding board. Is it even really
Banquo's ghost at the feast or just a figment of Macbeth's madness?
Elizabeth Debicki (The Night
Manager) as Lady Macduff is
also just sort of there, and though his delivery is fine, David
Thewlis' (Harry Potter)
King Duncan is made lax, a distant, inept king who should be deposed
to make us relate to Macbeth as his sad, victorious stand-in. David
Hayman (Trial &
Retribution) is made
irrelevant as Lennox, and the unique witch potential added to this
Macbeth never
fully embraces its surrealism, which is surprising amid a visual
display that could have gone for the ultra bizarre seen in Julie
Taymor's Titus and
The Tempest.
Ultimately,
it feels as though the ensemble is here because they have to be – a
guy to kill, a friend to betray, another usurper to fight.
If Macbeth
could have been done with just the unhappy couple, this version would
have done so. Actually, now that I think about it, that would have
been a two-hander tour de force update I'd like to have seen!
Fortunately,
authentic filming locations, Scottish castles, and gritty leather
costuming invoke the historical atmosphere alongside slicing sharp
sword sounds and blustery winds. Basic wooden structures are
fittingly small against snowscapes, mountains, and rustic waters, and
the women's costumes are likewise drab, minimally adorned robes with
simple braided hair styling. The blue nighttime schemes are
realistically grim but also incredibly picturesque, and a lot of time
in Macbeth is
spent outdoors with
orange battlefield heat. However, the vintage candlelit interiors and
firelight designs can be tough to see – viewer eyes must
continually adjust to the flickering flames with each surprisingly
traditional crosscut edit – and the artistic scene transitions are
pretty but unnecessary. Again, the phantoms in the mist and witches
mirages contrast the historically accurate approach, adding a whiff
of fantastic whilst remaining reluctant to totally embrace the
surreal. Instead, our Wood that moves becomes molten fallout ash –
a shrewd and unique but too contemporary rather than theatrical
twist. Macbeth plays
at the mentality of its characters in a modern cerebral bend, but the
impressive look and internal circumspect disconnect more than accent
each other. Why not have
Macbeth's traumatizing soliloquies become side by side Smeagol and
Gollum split screens, faces in the fire, or watery reflections?
Despite the beautiful design, I wonder what the dailies covering each
actor looked like. Did the production
not really like Shakespeare, so they felt the need to ramp it up by
dropping most of the text for awe-inspiring visuals?
All
my complaints, yet Macbeth
didn't
deserve a blink festival tour and miss it cinema release with no
award hopes – like Coriolanus,
The
Weinstein Company distributor strikes again in squashing
Shakespearean competition. Maybe it was asking too much to be blown
away, but this is not the best introduction to Macbeth
thanks
to too much artistic unevenness for the purist and a lacking
straightforwardness for classroom. Macbeth
is
one of my top three Billy favorites – competing with Othello
and
Julius Caesar for
number one. However, I wasn't
looking forward to this version after it sequestered the long
gestating Enemy of Man
production
from Vincent Regan and Sean Bean. The 2010 Patrick Stewart version
also better retained the source material with complimentary fascist
parallels. If you are going to add back story changes and stylish
designs with such a fine cast, be an intimate multi part serial
taking its time with the ensemble in this unique world and its
titular head space. The gritty realism for today's audiences is too
try hard, a dry, modern psychosis jarring to the play speech and
historic setting. Polarizing at best, Macbeth
tries
to have its cake and eat it too but halves the retelling's own
changes, remaining mumbly timid while unnecessarily treating
Shakespeare as too stuffy and in need of meta trauma.
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