5 stars out of 5
I’m not much of a Shakespeare buff, but MacBeth is my boy, yo! We read it in junior year of high school, and with my pals Steve, Rob, and Ken, made a related video project entitled Late Night With David MacLetterman. Two years later, I was lucky to see Christopher Plummer as MacBeth in Pittsburgh. So, of all Shakey’s works, I know this play the best.
As a result, I was less intimidated by the prospect of seeing a new filmic adaptation. Especially because it was directed by one half of my beloved Coen brothers, Joel.
And yet… hearing that Shakespearean language can be a struggle. I’ve seen several, ahem, lesser productions of the Bard’s oeuvre, and I usually have to refer to hastily googled synopses to have any idea what’s going on. Joel Coen is credited as the screenwriter here, so I was thinking, maybe he smoothed it out for me.
He did not.
And yet… not a problem! Coen is such a skillful filmmaker, with such a remarkably talented cast, that I was able to follow this from nave to the chops, and was riveted throughout.
Along with Nightmare Alley, this is the second great neo-noir of the season. MacBeth is the classic noir protagonist: He gets a taste of success and becomes greedy for more, by any means necessary. As the story progresses, his moral deficiencies are laid bare. Denzel Washington knocks it out of the park, immediately becoming an Oscar favorite for me. He seamlessly takes the character from humility to insecurity to bravado to paranoia and at last, to madness. We see on Washington’s face the inner torment he struggles with more and more, as guilt asserts itself. In a career of excellent performances, this is one of his best.
Then there’s Lady MacBeth (a.k.a. Lady Coen), Frances McDormand. With fresh eyes, I’d argue that Willy Shakes underwrote the character a tad. Still, she definitely makes an impression. When MacBeth is nervous and unsure, Lady Mac eggs him on to follow his worst instincts. She’s the cold-hearted schemer behind the scenes, a Dick Cheney, a Steve Bannon — history is littered with them. And when Big Mac starts to snap, she glares at him to keep it together. McDormand too pulls out all the stops. Her eyes light up like a pinball machine when she learns MacBeth is the man who would be king. Yaaaasssss queen!! She’s carnal, calculating, and finally, koo-koo. (If I had a nickel every time a woman said to “unsex me here.”)
Brendan Gleeson is suitably royal as good king Duncan, and you always know there will be fun when fellow Coen returnee Stephen Root emerges from a desk in the basement.
The cinematography and dramatic lighting are masterful. (This is how black and white is supposed to be done, Branagh.) The sets are spare and suggest a theatrical production except, you know, better. Coen composer Carter Burwell ups his game with a powerful score. The film is scary (oh those weird sisters!) and exciting and there’s not an ounce of fat. (Unlike so many bloated current flicks, Coen keeps it tidy at 105 minutes.) I am still eager for the next full-length, one-story offering written for the screen and directed by the Coen Bros. — come on, fellas, it’s been six years since Hail, Caesar! — but in the interim, this will do quite nicely.
Jack Silbert, curator