Movie Review: Macbeth

Seems like making a movie based on one of William Shakespeare’s works is the auteur equivalent of heading to Disneyland after winning the Superbowl.

Australian director Justin Kurzel, having impressed with his feature debut Snowtown and likely offered a slew of sophomore opportunities, has decided to rework the Bard’s Macbeth on his victory lap.

Before him came Joss Whedon, who, after wrapping The Avengers and seeing fat stacks accumulate on the horizon, quietly shot a family-and-friends production of Much Ado About Nothing at his L.A. home.

Even Ralph Fiennes capped off a noseless – yet probably well-paid – decade as Voldemort by making Coriolanus his first directorial effort.

As The Weeknd would say, they earned it.

Ironically, it's the hubris of these charged up filmmakers that often leads to mixed results. How can one beware the Ides of March when, again, as The Weekend puts it, one thinks they’ll stay forever young?

(What I’m trying to say, mostly, is The Weeknd’s lyrics can be applied to almost any situation imaginable.)

Kurzel’s pretty, remote Macbeth is one of those stage-to-screen translations that never quite leaps to life. It is recitation more than adaptation, despite having the talented Michael Fassbender as the title character and Marion Cotillard as his scheming Lady (as well as every acclaimed UK actor not busy with Broadchurch in support).

Macbeth tells the now-templated tale of a decorated soldier who is told by some otherworldly figures, after one triumphant battle, that he is fated to take the crown.

When Macbeth returns home and informs his wife about the premonition, she swiftly plots the murder of King Duncan (David Thewlis) to help speed up the usurping. At Lady Macbeth’s urging, he takes to Duncan’s tent and commits regicide with the vigour of a spill-happy politician. Soon enough, Macbeth is named ruler of Scotland. Nonetheless, the weight of his grisly deed – and the many, many reputation-saving killings that follow – weigh mightily on the couple. “Full of scorpions is my mind,” a demented Fassbender tells Cotillard, his eyes wild and his regalia tattered. When that moment occurs, you’re convinced you’re watching the best Macbeth there ever was.

The sensation recurs whenever cinematographer Adam Arkapaw – another Aussie, responsible also for Animal Kingdom and the good season of True Detective – delivers a startling and striking battle tableau. However, for the majority of proceedings, striking tableaus are all Kurzel’s Macbeth seems to be.

The screenplay, by Todd Louiso, Jacob Koskoff and Michael Lesslie, is lean and efficient, getting us from the bloody opening battle to the climactic showdown between Macbeth and Macduff (the sceptic to Macbeth’s coronation) in less than two hours.

Yet, this movie doesn’t seem to happen to its characters. Compare that to Kurzel’s visceral Snowtown, all about the gory murders of a small Adelaide town. That movie couldn’t stop happening to its characters. With both Snowtown and Macbeth, you can assume filmgoers know what will take place within. Little could possibly be spoiled. Still, only the former twisted my guts as I awaited the inevitable.

Perhaps the fault lies in our stars (or how they're used). Fassbender is so good as the man with a mind full of scorpions but leaves little impression in the play’s early, equally significant acts (in which he’s meant to wrestle with his moral conundrum). Cotillard, meanwhile, is affecting as a grief-stricken mother and menacing as an inflamed wife, but once made queen is largely absent.

(It’s certainly not the fault of Sean Harris, who evokes real rage and furious vengeance as Macduff.)

Our director has a vision for Macbeth. That much is undeniable. Whatever reason he has to re-tell the story is not communicated as clearly.

Often beautiful to behold though rarely involving, the devastating tale of Macbeth inspires only neutrality on celluloid here.

Kurzel remains a promising Aussie filmmaker who will one day do great things abroad; perhaps he was just untimely ripped.

3/5

In cinemas October 1. Rated MA15+ for strong violence.