• 

  Manisha Lakhe

  Read full review Hide full review

  

  0

  

  0

Thou shalt not find fault with the acting prowess of the lad from Ipswich who grew up to win a Tony award for playing Hamlet and accolades for scaring children when he played the Lord of Darkness, Voldemort.

Thou shalt be amazed at how beautifully the close-ups of his face reveal the passion of a soldier who loved his city and yet loathed the common people he swore to protect.

Thou shalt not find fault with the acting prowess of the lad from Ipswich who grew up to win a Tony award for playing Hamlet and accolades for scaring children when he played the Lord of Darkness, Voldemort.

Thou shalt be amazed at how beautifully the close-ups of his face reveal the passion of a soldier who loved his city and yet loathed the common people he swore to protect.

Thou shalt not remember that Baz Luhrman modernised Shakespearean romance (Romeo And Juliet) way back in 1996 and did such a splendid job that maybe, just maybe our very own homegrown production by Vishal Bhardwaj of MacBeth (Maqbool) and Othello (Omkara) were inspired by that recreation. That Baz Luhrman's version was so brilliantly created, one would want to recreate other works of Shakespeare so more people would appreciate the word play and the story-telling.



But Fiennes is a classical Shakespeare man. Trained at the art of theater, the diction his honey drenched voice overrides his talent as a director in Corilanus. Now tragedies are heart-wrenchingly beautiful especially of the story is that of doomed young love or misunderstood, obsessive love. But Corilanus is a tale of a soldier who loves his country, of a man whose friendships are doomed. Thou must admit, it is a fine concept, but not exactly material for fame and fortune. Am not saying that the play is insignificant or uninteresting. I forsooth that the subject is a tad remote from people fed upon the travails of love.

Ralph Fiennes doth don the mantle of the director with Coriolanus, and you knoweth he is in for a cakewalk when he chooseth Vanessa Redgrave, an actor without compare to play Volumnia, Corilanus's mother.



If thou art scared of the classics, you ought to be very afraid of Coriolanus because the dialog comes at you fast and furious, the exchange so rapid you have to be fully awake in order to understand that his mother is not only an ambitious mom but an iron willed politician as well (sort of like Indira Gandhi and her sons), and she uses all her motherly wiles at her soldier son first to persuade him to face the people (who think he's been rather violent as a soldier), and then later telleth him to make peace with the city council.

And if thou hast any hatred towards a lisping Gerard Butler (who speaketh every sentence with so much spit bursting at you from the screen, thou art grateful the film is not 3D), that you wonder why he was cast as the rebel leader at all. Maybe the casting director hath seen only one scene where Butler yelleth, 'This is Sparta' and was impressed. Maybe they should have seen all his movies where he sporteth the very same expression and yelleth every dialog in the very same way. I was very amused at mister Butler, and that is not the effect he was meant to have on the audience.



Which bringeth me to the conclusion that this tale of friendship and betrayal is at best a classroom show for students of Shakespeare and for fans of the fine actors Ralph Fiennes (It's Rafe, actually) and Vanessa Redgrave. Why the setting hast been faintly East European only God and Fiennes know. I enjoyeth Shakespeare and his word play muchly, and therewith I am biased. But do watch it on DVD when it appeareth in your neighborhood video store.