Director Justin Kurzel is strangely noteworthy as a director
not for what he has directed previously (which is itself nothing of note), but for
what his next project is slated to be: the film adaptation of Assassin’s Creed. To precede that film with an adaptation of
one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays seems more than a little bizarre,
especially considering that Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard are
performing in both films. The resulting
interpretation of Macbeth is
simultaneously artistically boisterous and tragically pointless, a
demonstration that Kurzel can portray historical violence in compelling and
visually interesting ways that places the actual Shakespearean text in the back
seat.
Kurzel and his fellow screenwriters take some liberties with
the original play, most notably in that the battle that takes places in the
moments immediately preceding the events of the play is shown in its full
bloody glory with Macbeth (Fassbender) at the front and center. This battle is, as is most of the rest of the
film, visually stunning, as cinematographer Adam Arkapaw captures some of the
most beautifully composed shots of the year.
However, this has the unfortunate effect of demonstrating Macbeth as a
violent tyrant right from the get-go, so that his descent into madness feels
more like a formality than a truly tragic evolution of his once uncorrupted
character.
Both Fassbender and Cotillard do fantastic work as the
Macbeths, particularly in individual scenes where they are given the full
breadth of the original text to work with.
Fassbender’s decent into madness is assisted by some clever manipulation
of time through editing and Cotillard’s Lady Macbeth is at once daringly
manipulative of her husband and yet dumbstruck by the monster her goading has
supposedly created. Neither
transformation is really given the amount of screen time necessary to feel
entirely convincing, though, as the film tends to rush through the slower, more
talkative parts of the play as mere formality in order to get to the more
violent and emotionally tortured material.
And that is ultimately why this isn’t in the upper echelon
of Shakespearean adaptations; Kurzel has placed all priority on style rather
than on substance. As gorgeous as the
cinematography is, many of the scenes designed so show off these shots drag on
for way too long through an abuse of slow motion that would make even Zack Snyder flinch. Furthermore, the score of
this film is an omnipresent somber dirge, mixed much too loudly so as to be
distracting rather than mood-setting.
Some stylized choices work, such as the blood red filter on the
climactic battle scene or the near-wordless subplot about Banquo’s son losing
everything at Macbeth’s hand, but these inspired moments feel muted by the
constant heavy-handed reminders that this is art cinema. And that just makes the production feel like a disingenous self-marketing exercise for Justin Kurzel in order to prove he can handle a large-scale production like Assassin's Creed.
On the whole, I’m willing to give this movie a pass because,
at its core, it’s still Macbeth and
is still entertaining based on the strength of the source material and the
great talent performing it. However, I
hope that some producer influence can reign in some of Justin Kurzel’s arthouse
tendencies while making Assassin's Creed, because his lack of subtlety becomes quite tiresome by the end of
two hours.
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