Hamlet in the Golden Vale is a 2019 drama about a company of actors who arrive at a castle deep in the Irish countryside and set into motion the story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
If you’re like me, the first time you see a production of Hamlet on film, it sort of sets a standard, no matter how many other takes on the famous work of William Shakespeare you see. In school I’d read the play, or rather skimmed the good bits for class, and then seen it performed live while in university more than once. But it was Franco Zeffirelli‘s dynamic (and often underrated) adaptation with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close that became the first movie version I saw, and it has to this day stuck with me, no matter the criticisms, a powerfully evocative effort with a big budget spin that just plain works.
Naturally, I ended up seeing just about every other version since, including Laurence Olivier‘s much acclaimed and award-winning 1948 performance and Kenneth Branagh‘s 1996 celebrity-filled spectacle, truly enjoying them both. I even liked the 2000 film with Ethan Hawke, a modern adaptation that is loaded with good performances, even if the setting doesn’t quite work … yet Zeffirelli was always there, his film one I return to often for my Shakespeare fix.
And now we have this, directors Dan Hasse and Taylor Myers‘ imaginative reworking of the play, set again in modern times with a clever and creative intertwining of players and characters that adds a surprisingly compelling new layer to the proceedings. How? Well, it’s unconventional yet beautifully subtle about it as we slip seamlessly into the telling, where a group of actors arrive by car to a pastoral country setting and in so doing, without prompt, fall into the performance, every word of the film taken from the play as they use an old farmhouse, an abandoned keep, and the surrounding fields as a stage. It’s of course condensed but very faithful, all the best bits here, told over a seven day period.
Myers is the titular Hamlet, who brings a youthful whimsy to the part, properly giving the pained prince some rebellion as he uncovers the secrets of his uncle’s treachery. He’s joined by an ensemble who take to the telling, most younger than we’ve come to expect perhaps but not without some weight, including good work from Beth Ann Hopkins‘ as Gertrude, Elise Kibler as Ophelia and Jonathan Hopkins as Polonius and three other characters. Fact is, most of the cast handle more than one name on the dramatis personæ, leading to some smart camera work, wardrobe, and makeup. These are all a talented troupe and it’s how well the film convinces that they are both the players in the play and the characters in the story – if that makes sense – that makes this so appealing. We often complain in a movie that we never get past ‘seeing’ the actor in the part, yet that is sort of exactly the point of this. It’s very cool.
This also brings up an interesting point, where plays lend themselves to allowable and accepted multiple interpretations, Hamlet itself retold in what would seem uncountable iterations, yet films are mostly forever locked into a director’s singular vision, remakes that do sometimes get made often criticized or rejected. This Hamlet is not unlike most, nor does it try not to be, even with its modern setting. However, Hasse and Myers seep this in beautiful colors and striking imagery, tragic and terrible, gritty and surreal, the production limited but never lacking, building to a truly affecting end that properly puts this in company with the best that have come before. Mr. Zeffirelli, you sir have at last some competition. This is a truly inspiring and elegant experience. Highly recommended.