Modern Dress ‘Hamlet’ Showcases Lengthy Wit

At last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, audiences saw two Shakespeare-related releases. One was Chloë Zhao’s Hamnet. The other was Aneil Karia’s contemporary Hamlet.

Premise and approach

Karia relocates Hamlet to a South Asian community in London. The film stars Riz Ahmed, noted as Karia’s fellow Oscar-winner connected to the short The Long Goodbye.

The production uses modern settings and the Bard’s language at odds. The famous “to be or not to be” speech becomes a car scene. Hamlet debates life while speeding and playing chicken with oncoming traffic.

Adaptation choices

Screenwriter Michael Lesslie adds a subplot about housing. Hamlet’s family are portrayed as real estate barons. Their development projects are shown forcing citizens into homelessness.

The film places soliloquies in unconventional spots. Hamlet rushes into bathrooms and other odd locations to speak. The father’s ghost may appear as a drug-induced hallucination.

Modern dress and tone

This modern dress Hamlet sometimes reads as clever and sometimes as rushed. The adaptation repeatedly trims or removes familiar lines. For example, Polonius’s line about brevity is curiously absent.

At times the movie leans into lengthy wit. That wit sometimes feels stretched thin across the film’s underdeveloped scenes.

Performances and character work

Riz Ahmed gives a committed central turn. Stuart Bentley’s handheld camerawork captures many close-ups of him. Still, some key relationships lack depth.

Sheeba Chaddha plays Gertrude. Art Malik appears as Claudius. Avijit Dutt is credited as Hamlet’s deceased father.

• Timothy Spall appears as Polonius.
• Joe Alwyn plays Laertes.
• Morfydd Clark is cast as Ophelia.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are omitted entirely. Several performers deliver lines in a muted, mumbled style. That makes Hamlet’s line about “words, words, words” feel ironically undercut.

Cultural reworking

The production folds South Asian cultural elements into the play within the play. The staged drama becomes an eerie dance number.

Hamlet, Gertrude, and Claudius wear traditional garb and jewelry. The father’s spirit speaks Hindi while Shakespeare’s lines appear in English subtitles.

Filmmakers make Hamlet’s duty to elders a central engine of his guilt and rage. Those choices reshape motivation and family dynamics.

Technical details and release

The film runs 112 minutes. It is rated R but is closer to PG-13 in tone despite a bloody murder.

Credits list Aneil Karia as director and Michael Lesslie as screenwriter. The picture is based on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Showings include Coolidge Corner, AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, and suburban theaters.

Filmogaz.com’s critic Odie Henderson awarded the film two-and-a-half stars. The review calls the picture intriguing but ultimately a near miss.