B | After a brutal battle, Macbeth gets prodded to aim higher. Directed by Justin Kurzel Starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard Review by Jon Kissel |
Shakespeare’s tale of paranoia and guilt gets a stylized adaptation in Justin Kurzel’s MacBeth. The Australian director, when he’s not doing the ultimate one-for-them with an Assassin’s Creed adaptation, is fascinated by contemporary monsters, as evidenced by his debut feature The Snowtown Murders about a serial killer and his latest, Nitram, about the Port Arthur mass shooting. In between, Kurzel made True History of the Kelly Gang, a period piece that both lionizes and undermines a 19th century Australian outlaw. Kurzel’s twin interests in violent extremity and curiosity about the people who commit those kinds of crimes make him well-suited for Macbeth, a play about an ostensibly good man who turns into a tyrant without much convincing. Starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard at high points of their respective careers, Kurzel’s Macbeth has all the ingredients for a top-notch adaptation.
For a play that’s been adapted in so many mediums by so many writers and directors, Kurzel needs to bring something new to the table. Fitting for a director who’s made the kinds of films he has, a version of hell is created for the characters to slog through. The film opens on a shot of a dead baby, making text what scholars appear to disagree on with regard to why the Macbeths are childless. In Kurzel’s vision, everything that happens is preceded by standing vigil over a child’s funeral pyre, a child whose existence means more than family thanks to the medieval setting. It means stability, legacy, and longevity go up in the same flames. As if this wasn’t bleak enough, Kurzel also adds a battle that most versions skip. One of the first scenes of the original Macbeth is King Duncan being told of Macbeth’s victory. Here, we see what that means with some rough swords-and-axes warfare, fought by beardless boys that veterans like Macbeth (Fassbender) and Banquo (Paddy Consindine) gently anoint with woad before the battle. A boy that Macbeth makes a connection with is killed, and later haunts him as a ghost. This is a miserable life for even the most powerful people in Scotland, but it’s credible that climbing further up can insulate a person from all this horror. Being a thane still means that one wallows in it. Maybe being a king creates some distance.
However, watching Macbeth in the wake of Tragedy of Macbeth is a letdown. The aforementioned Act I elongations are Kurzel’s single innovation, and while they’re potent ones, he gets topped by Joel Coen at every other turn. The Weird Sisters are mere Celtic witches who lack much of an otherworldly quality. The supporting cast outside of Fassbender and Cotillard are single-note grim, including actors I often appreciate like Sean Harris as Macduff and Elizabeth Debicki as Lady Macduff. Speaking of the Macduffs, Kurzel lingers a tortuous amount of time on their small children, tied to stakes and burned alive in the presence of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, another embellishment for this adaptation. This draws a short line between seeing (and smelling and hearing) something as horrific as this and Lady Macbeth’s subsequent breakdown, but it’s a bloody and bold exclamation point that has zero subtlety. The look of the film, as shot by Adam Arkapaw, is at its best when wreathed in fiery oranges, but the rest is gray and cold, a choice that matches the tone but provides little to grab onto or propel the viewer.
As good as it is to be in any movie, no matter how bleak, with feral Fassbender and witchy Cotillard, both of whom have slowed down their hitmaking pace in subsequent years, Macbeth runs out of steam after the underlining of its first act. Committing to the depressive and hellish angle is a choice that improves my opinion of Tragedy of Macbeth, as that tells the same story but with none of the dreariness or flatness. It even finds time for humor, which, in Kurzel’s imagining, won’t be arriving in the Scottish highlands for another century or two. The major addition, making Macbeth into a noble commander who cares deeply about his men and feels their deaths, does reorient his motivations and turn him into a kind of Rambo-esque man-on-the-field resentful of the generals far away, but there’s only so much reinvention that can be done with a 500 year old play. This is a strong adaptation of timeless source material, but it lacks the sustained vision to make it one of the greats. B
However, watching Macbeth in the wake of Tragedy of Macbeth is a letdown. The aforementioned Act I elongations are Kurzel’s single innovation, and while they’re potent ones, he gets topped by Joel Coen at every other turn. The Weird Sisters are mere Celtic witches who lack much of an otherworldly quality. The supporting cast outside of Fassbender and Cotillard are single-note grim, including actors I often appreciate like Sean Harris as Macduff and Elizabeth Debicki as Lady Macduff. Speaking of the Macduffs, Kurzel lingers a tortuous amount of time on their small children, tied to stakes and burned alive in the presence of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, another embellishment for this adaptation. This draws a short line between seeing (and smelling and hearing) something as horrific as this and Lady Macbeth’s subsequent breakdown, but it’s a bloody and bold exclamation point that has zero subtlety. The look of the film, as shot by Adam Arkapaw, is at its best when wreathed in fiery oranges, but the rest is gray and cold, a choice that matches the tone but provides little to grab onto or propel the viewer.
As good as it is to be in any movie, no matter how bleak, with feral Fassbender and witchy Cotillard, both of whom have slowed down their hitmaking pace in subsequent years, Macbeth runs out of steam after the underlining of its first act. Committing to the depressive and hellish angle is a choice that improves my opinion of Tragedy of Macbeth, as that tells the same story but with none of the dreariness or flatness. It even finds time for humor, which, in Kurzel’s imagining, won’t be arriving in the Scottish highlands for another century or two. The major addition, making Macbeth into a noble commander who cares deeply about his men and feels their deaths, does reorient his motivations and turn him into a kind of Rambo-esque man-on-the-field resentful of the generals far away, but there’s only so much reinvention that can be done with a 500 year old play. This is a strong adaptation of timeless source material, but it lacks the sustained vision to make it one of the greats. B
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