Review of Macbeth (2015) by Sophie Y — 22 Dec 2015

The actors could have killed their roles with their skills, but Justin Kurzel did it for them by making them flat and bland. I will admit that I'm a Shakespeare snob, but this movie doesn't do the play or the characters justice.

There was very little character development - no progression from good to corrupt to insane, and only a hint of guilt - there's a reason why Macbeth uses phrases like "dagger of the mind" and "full of scorpions is my mind" - his guilt is what makes him paranoid.

In this case, he just becomes paranoid. Also, when monologues are turned into dialogues, the words suddenly lose their introspection and characters just rumble at that point. Fassbender ran through his lines and ignored the meaning like he didn't understand what he was saying - which was sad considering what a good actor he is.

Marion Cotillard was much better and embodied Lady Macbeth, but Kurzel completely cut out the sleepwalking and hand washing parts and only showed her unraveling by letting her hair unravel. Other lapses included the omission of the only four lines in the whole play where we really see L.

Macbeth admitting that they did it all for nothing, the witches being witches (they were extremely soft-spoken women with a baby and little girl), and the development of Malcolm as a character. I know that this is "based" on the play, but it you're going to tackle the Bard, at least do it right.

This was disappointing and I was counting down the acts until the movie was over. In this case, foul was not fair.