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OPHELIA (2019)
Director: Claire McCarthy Cast: Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, George McKay, Clive Owen, Devon Terrell, Tom Felton, Dominic Mafham MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:54 Release Date: 6/28/19 (limited); 7/5/19 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 27, 2019 Some
things about Hamlet are open to
interpretation. That's why it remains one of Shakespeare's most celebrated and
produced plays. It's also why it's vital that the play continues to be staged
and filmed, if only so that we can better understand it by way of the details
that one production may highlight over others, the means by which different
actors will approach the assorted characters, and the text itself, which has
three versions and infinite possibilities in terms of combining or condensing
them. Some things about the play, though, aren't as open to interpretation, and that's where Ophelia gets into trouble. The idea behind the movie, which comes from a novel by Lisa Klein, is simultaneously intriguing and fool-hardy. The basic concept is a re-telling of Hamlet from the perspective of Ophelia, the constantly manipulated and much-abused love interest of the melancholy Danish prince. The intriguing part, perhaps, is the possibility of gaining a deeper and more specific comprehension of the character, who basically exists in the play to become an unwilling pawn of men of power, an unwitting pawn of the man she loves, and, finally, the victim of too much tragedy to bear. The play itself, of course, is rather sympathetic of Ophelia's plight, which is partially the reason that a version of the story with the perspective shifted to her seems unnecessary. There's also the major question of what more we can learn about the specifics of the play from a figure who is intentionally kept in the dark about what's happening in the story. Her ignorance of events and motives beyond her knowledge, though, could be a fascinating angle from which to approach a new version of the story. Everyone knows what is happening or, by the end, what has happened in Hamlet, save for poor Ophelia, who commits suicide before the full truth emerges to all. Even her fool of a father has a decent idea of what has unfolded until the point he decides to hide behind a curtain. Sticking to the actual story, that's the only way to approach an accurate re-telling of the play from Ophelia's point of view. Let's just say, then, that this movie, written by Semi Chellas and directed by Claire McCarthy, isn't about Ophelia's ignorance or, indeed, about an Ophelia anywhere close to the one Shakespeare wrote. Without giving away the game, the story opens with a voice-over from the character, as her body lies floating in a river, that basically amounts to the old cliché, "You're probably wondering how I got here." As for the fate of this Ophelia (Daisy Ridley), all one really needs to know is that this story introduces a new character: an accused witch with a mastery of poisons and, more importantly, antidotes. Before the plot of the play unfolds in hasty fashion, we get some back story. Ophelia is a commoner, elevated to a lady-in-waiting, because her father Polonius (Dominic Mafham) is an advisor to the king and Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts) admires the girl's attitude. She falls for Hamlet (George MacKay) while he's on temporary leave from school, and when the prince returns to his studies, that's when his father is apparently killed by a venomous snake. Claudius (Clive Owen), the king's brother, quickly wins the crown and marries Gertrude. Hamlet returns, decidedly unhappy. Ophelia, obviously, doesn't really play into the story as it has stood for over four centuries (yet another reason that a re-telling from the character's perspective doesn't make much sense), but this movie finds a way around that: Change the character's words and action to transform her character into the most important one in the plot. It is she who discovers the truth of Hamlet's father's murder at the hands of his uncle, thanks to her meeting Mechtild (also Watts), the witch and Gertrude's twin sister. It is her keeping the men in power from learning of Hamlet's ruse of being insane, because he lets her in on the plan. The result is that we're not watching a re-imagining of Hamlet. We're watching a recalibration of the story, the themes, and the characters, for the purpose of elevating a character who no longer even resembles the one Shakespeare wrote. Even then, this variation of Ophelia still feels like a secondary player to the events of the story, because there is no way to make her a protagonist without completely re-writing the course of the play. The filmmakers, at least, only slightly but still significantly re-write it. Ophelia feels pretty much useless as a critique of, a re-evaluation of, or a commentary on the original text. By the end, it's more akin to empty, misguided wish fulfillment than anything resembling the play. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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