Macbeth (2006)

Directed by: Geoffrey Wright | 109 minutes | crime, drama, thriller | Actors: Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill, Lachy Hulme, Gary Sweet, Steve Bastoni, Mick Molloy, Matt Doran, Damian Walshe-Howling, Jonny Pasvolsky, Rel Hunt, John Molloy, Miranda Nation, Chloe Armstrong, Kate Bell, Bob Franklin, Simon Scott, Nash Edgerton, Lance Anderson, Kevin Tran, Samuel Tew, Christopher Shen, Anna Anderson, Hai Ha, Nikon Souphan, Ri-Jie Kwok, George Vidalis, Terry Lim, Norman Keller, Charles Lavea-Williams, Socratis Otto, Christopher Kirby Ruby O’Rourke, Katherine Tonkin, Craig Stott, Corinne Davies, Saskia Sansom, Edwina Wren, Kat Stewart, Louis Corbett, Chris Vance, Jamie-Lee Wilson, Peter Davenport

Australian director Geoffrey Wright (“Romper Stomper”) takes a little too much on his fork with this modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s classic play. Wright and actress Victoria Hill wrote this contemporary version of the story, featuring Australian mobsters instead of Scottish nobles, but – despite many adaptations to our times – kept the original text. Baz Luhrmann chose the same starting point ten years earlier, but ‘Romeo + Juliet’ certainly did not become the result.

‘Macbeth’ is extremely violent, with slick shootings and bloody reckonings in Melbourne’s criminal scene. The film immediately sets the tone by opening with a botched drug deal (instead of a battle), with the corpses falling in droves and the blood flowing profusely. After that, the high tempo is rarely let go, with fast shots, energetic camera work and a stirring soundtrack, but it is a sin to exaggerate in those areas. At times it is unclear what exactly is happening on screen, the image is sickeningly jerky and John Clifford White’s music is only distracting at times. It is clear that the makers have looked closely at Tarantino (also not a friendly dialogue writer). The dialogues between the protagonists have something rushed about them, as if they would like to immediately continue finishing each other. The final scene is inspired by DePalma’s ‘Scarface’, where the slow-motion trick gets boring very quickly. The locations, the sets and the costumes are a feast for the eyes and worked out with a great sense of detail. But here too people go too far: was Macbeth’s leather kilt really necessary?

The acting performances are rather unevenly distributed. Sam Worthington, who plays the title role, walks aimlessly through the film. The Macbeth of the play is not a hero to be too sympathetic to, but it is essential that the viewer can identify with him to the extent that you understand why Macbeth acts the way he does. Such is the influence of ambition, hunger for power, his wife’s whisperings, the madness and inability to stop the carnage once the first murder is committed. It is the psychological portrait that makes Shakespeare’s characters so timeless that the actions that follow (whether it be Hamlet’s crippling indecision, Richard III’s gloating badness, or Othello’s consuming jealousy) are still intelligible and imaginable four hundred years later. Worthington’s Macbeth is flat and lacks the required depth, dramatically never showing its rise and inevitable fall. His Macbeth is not an interesting main character, who proudly plunges into destruction, but an almost unresisting puppet, who evokes neither sympathy nor connection in the viewer. It fares slightly better for Hill, who plays the nameless Lady Macbeth and – barring a few hysterical moments – portrays a believable (and coke-sniffing) character. Gary Sweet is an excellent Duncan (here the gangster boss, instead of the king) and it’s a shame he dies pretty soon. The best role par excellence is for Lachy Hulme as the good guy MacDuff. Hadn’t his powerful charisma and talent made him a fine Macbeth? Not all supporting actors have it easy with English from the 17th century and it takes some getting used to hearing the words pronounced with a heavy Australian accent.

Arguably the most bizarre change from the original piece is that the three witches who predict Macbeth’s future are three young girls in school uniform (“The Craft,” anyone?). They are not only a lot younger and sexier than in previous versions, but they also share the bed with Macbeth, which results in a large portion of non-functional and tattooed nudes.

Because of all the violence, the flashy editing, the bombastic music and the fantastic decoration, Wright has delivered a product that mainly stands out because of its shape. Unfortunately, the content is missing, which is the death knell for a Shakespearean drama.