Oh, what a piece
of work is Ethan Hawke

By Amy Diaz
(A review of Hamlet)

Ethan Hawke is the original disaffected youth in Hamlet, a modern setting rendition of the William Shakespeare play.

Hamlet (Hawke) is back in New York City from college. His father (Sam Shepard) is dead. His uncle, Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan), has married Hamlet's mom, Gertrude (Diane Verona), and taken over Denmark Corporation, the family business. Hamlet - in a serious funk over the ick factor of his mother's new arrangement - is also being haunted by his father, who appears on apartment security cameras. And then there is young Ham's doomed relationship with the SoHo artsy type, Ophelia (Julia Stiles).

One look at a Pepsi product placement and you'll know this is not a Royal Shakespeare Company production. About half of the play we English majors were taught to revere is edited out and the remaining half has been jumbled around a little. (Alas, poor Yorick, he appears only in a brief clip from an old Lawrence Olivier Hamlet.) Fortinbras's attacks on Denmark are now part of a hostile takeover strategy. A forged email now does in cult favorites Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when they reach England. The "to be or not to be" speech is delivered in the Action section of a Blockbuster video store. Hawke - who made his name playing the ultimate Gen X-er in Reality Bites - mopes around in a knit cap shooting footage for some unknown film school masterpiece. His anger and frustration is well played, but his coffee house angst can get a little over done. These updates can be both entertaining and a little cloying.

This Hamlet also suffers from some traditional “Hamlet” problems including the wimpy portrayal of the female characters. Like many an Ophelia who came before her, Stiles is too vague a character and too weepy. (To Stiles's defense, there haven't been that many really good Ophelias.) Gertrude is a bit better, but some fudging with the final scene and cuts throughout the play have skewed her motives.

Much like pizza or chocolate or sex, even a mediocre Hamlet is still Hamlet (and this is better than mediocre). While no high school senior will pass his AP exam solely based on this version, the movie is a fun interpretation. Sure Hawke's young Dane is a bit of a whiny slacker, but so is the Bard's Hamlet. This has always been a young man's play. The ideal Hamlet is a twenty - or young thirtysomething - who is forced from a hipster prince lifestyle into the politics of betrayal and revenge.

The true shining stars in this rendition are the men of the family Polonius. Bill Murray proves that despite his SNL beginnings (or perhaps because of them, remember the lounge singer?) he is a truly top self actor. His Polonius is a corporate yes-man and a loving father who despairs at seeing his daughter's life ruined by her affair with the goateed prince. Liev Schreiber's Laertes is all furrowed brow and hot blood. A darling of the indie movies, Schreiber himself would have made a damn fine Hamlet but does a great job with his supporting role.

Though purists will undoubtedly cringe at the updates and omissions, this Hamlet is a welcome volume to the “Hamlet” library. It succeeds because - as Polonius so aptly advises - it is to its own self true