What a beautiful film! A little too beautiful, if you know what I mean. No, how could you know what I mean? I’ll get to that. Joel Coen adapted and directed William Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy “Macbeth” with a cinematography and set design so stark the film deliberately invokes a timeless feel. The result is a film that remains a critical masterpiece, but middling entertainment. For one thing, I dunno what century this film pretends to be in, but it’s one that doesn’t have sheets … or furniture … or closets or art or rugs or laundry or entertainment of any kind. I know the Scots like to rough it, but this is ridiculous.
The genius of this picture is almost entirely in the look. It’s a muted b&w combined with a pristine-yet-completely-bare art design that harkens back to the Shakespeare of Sir Laurence Olivier. In addition, the producers managed to collect Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as Lord and Lady Macbeth. I’m not sure you could ask for a better pair, ever.
That said, I have a quibble or two with this film. Acting is of tantamount importance in Shakespeare because of the language barrier between English and … English. While one can recognize the greatness of character assumption within both lead roles, I felt that communication was lacking both in word and direction. I do not know whether the fault lies in directorial choice or an abridged script or what, but I had some significant difficulty swallowing Macbeth’s motivation. Take the scene, for instance, where Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to commit murder and treason in one fell swoop. I’m paraphrasing here; (obviously) Shakespeare’s words are better than mine, but the key dialogue essentially is:
Macbeth: “Hmmm, listen babe, I’m thinking I don’t want to kill the king and be an assassin and a traitor and all.”
Lady Macbeth: “No, you should.”
Macbeth: “Ok, here I go.”
This is reflective of how I felt the dialogue in the film went. There were lines 
I recognized from both Shakespeare and life’s endless metaphoric tongue-wagging, but I had bubble bubble toil and trouble trying to figure out exactly what motivated any character at any given time.
Speaking of prescient hags, the play is set in motion when war hero Macbeth stops by the local fortune tellers on his way back from kicking Norwegian butt. In one of the best surprises in the movie, the crone scenes went from OMG awful to my favorite bit – the witches (all played by Kathryn Hunter) are introduced as one witch playing three roles. What is this? Witch Gollum? This doesn’t work at all. However, as Macbeth approacheth, the witch edges up to a still lake and reflects in a pool not directly, but twice off-centered. OK, that’s cool. And the “bubble bubble” scene is even better, both in technical and entertainment value.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the play, the hags tell Macbeth he’s destined to be king but then kinda beat around the bush about details, including successor of which Macbeth hath none, dudes and dudeths. This is when Lady Macbeth gets involved cuz she can’t NOT be involved when throne-hunting is the subject. And then the usurping begins.
Back to the cinematography: The Tragedy of Macbeth is a study in austerity with dense fog rolling in on newly minted and untarnished sets. There is a tragic feel to the picture as the foreboding cinematography deliberately matches the desolate actions of amoral figures. I could love this picture for look alone, but I do not … for in my head remain questions of “When is this supposed to take place?” and “Why isn’t there anything in the room?” I won’t call the film overrated; I respect it without loving it. While it might just win a Best Picture Oscar, I will not have it on my Best list of 2021.
There once was a Scot named Macbeth
Who brought many a foe to his death
He said he’d live forever
And Macduff said, “Whatever…
Dude, you need to give it a reth.”
Rated R, 105 Minutes
Director: Joel Coen
Writer: Joel Coen
Genre: Oscar bait
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Critics
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: High schoolers forced to watch
