Mmm Richard Armitage.
Um, I mean,'A review of Macbeth' - caught the last note of Eastenders so discovered that the BBC are branding his series (and branding is the only word) as ShakespeaRe Told. I want to find the person who suggested that, the one that approved it with a comedy fish in hand so I can slap their cheeks. Trendy thickos.
It was very, very stylish - I mean there were lots of gorgeously frames shots, and the colour scheme, mainly monochrome, so the strongest colour was the dull silver of the knives - apart from the red blood. THe blood that Macbeth was seeing really was effective and sick, but you don't go and watch Macbeth to enjoy yourself, or I don't, anyway. They got the creepiness and the growing psychoses and guilt and horribleness across well.
The acting too, was great (is that James Macavoy's real accent? Must remember to listen out in his interviews for Narnia). Keely Hawes played his lady as a femme fatale who cracked, which was just right, and the scenes where she did lose it were really, really affecting, she's an excellent actress. And there was Richard "Mr Thornton" Armitage (spot the Gaskell adaptation connection) as MacDuff. He really ought to do some kind of thriller where he is wearing a lot of black and walking around broodily in the gloom, because he'd do it stupendously.
My beef (ha, suitable choice of word) was with the writing though. When they kept it simple, it worked, Hawes's character had too much allusory imagery. The singing and the bragadaccio of the kitchen worked (and I thought it was a brilliant transfer for Scotland, a fiefdom, all men together battling against all that could go wrong with their meals.) The most effective meld of poetry and situational adaptation (or at least they grew on me) was the bin men as the weird sisters. They tied in nicely with the murder plot, their knowingness was almost explained and they were truly weird. (Although it occurs to me now that the writer got the idea from Camino Real???)
But things like the reference to Shakespeare in an adaptation of a tragedy? No. And again no. You can get away with it in a comedy, specially the lighter ones, but no.
Looking forward to the updating of The Taming of the Shrew because Rufus Sewell! (Will forget he was ever in the Zorro sequel) and Shirley Henderson who is fab.
It was very, very stylish - I mean there were lots of gorgeously frames shots, and the colour scheme, mainly monochrome, so the strongest colour was the dull silver of the knives - apart from the red blood. THe blood that Macbeth was seeing really was effective and sick, but you don't go and watch Macbeth to enjoy yourself, or I don't, anyway. They got the creepiness and the growing psychoses and guilt and horribleness across well.
The acting too, was great (is that James Macavoy's real accent? Must remember to listen out in his interviews for Narnia). Keely Hawes played his lady as a femme fatale who cracked, which was just right, and the scenes where she did lose it were really, really affecting, she's an excellent actress. And there was Richard "Mr Thornton" Armitage (spot the Gaskell adaptation connection) as MacDuff. He really ought to do some kind of thriller where he is wearing a lot of black and walking around broodily in the gloom, because he'd do it stupendously.
My beef (ha, suitable choice of word) was with the writing though. When they kept it simple, it worked, Hawes's character had too much allusory imagery. The singing and the bragadaccio of the kitchen worked (and I thought it was a brilliant transfer for Scotland, a fiefdom, all men together battling against all that could go wrong with their meals.) The most effective meld of poetry and situational adaptation (or at least they grew on me) was the bin men as the weird sisters. They tied in nicely with the murder plot, their knowingness was almost explained and they were truly weird. (Although it occurs to me now that the writer got the idea from Camino Real???)
But things like the reference to Shakespeare in an adaptation of a tragedy? No. And again no. You can get away with it in a comedy, specially the lighter ones, but no.
Looking forward to the updating of The Taming of the Shrew because Rufus Sewell! (Will forget he was ever in the Zorro sequel) and Shirley Henderson who is fab.