Ophelia is a 2019 romantic drama that reimagines Shakespeare’s tragic cloak and dagger play Hamlet from the perspective of his love interest, Ophelia.
Ophelia begins in medieval Denmark when young Ophelia (Mia Quiney), a scrappy, motherless, and a perpetually muddy-cheeked little girl moves to her kingdom’s city with her courtier father, Polonius (Dominic Mafham) and her studious brother Laertes (Calum O’Rourke). The willful and outspoken girl quickly wins over Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts) and is offered a home at Elsinore Castle and a highly esteemed position as one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting.
Ophelia’s rambunctious childhood gives way to dignified womanhood as bookish Ophelia (Daisy Ridley), with her preference for simplicity, finds herself scorned by the other ladies-in-waiting at court. With a lowborn father, flowers tucked in her cascading cinnamon-colored tresses instead of jewels, and the favoritism Queen Gertrude bestows on Ophelia, the heroine is an easy target. Unwilling to break under the torrents of spite, malice, and bitter vitriol spewed by Lady Cristiana (Daisy Head) and her “pecking hens” Ophelia guards the fire blazing inside her and carries on, quickly catching the eye of Danish Prince, Hamlet (George MacKay), when he returns to the kingdom. What the lovestruck Dane doesn’t see is that the Queen Mother is one, miffed about her husband, the King, ignoring her, two, grappling with the anxiety that comes with a woman aging in a patriarchal society, and three, having a not-so-secret affair with his conceited uncle, Claudius (Clive Owen).
In many ways, Ophelia is textbook Shakespeare: duels to the death, scheming family members, ruthless power plays, and torrid, forbidden romances. It’s also a brazenly revisionist and feminist take on the bearded bard’s bloodiest and most famous tragedy. Daisy Ridley’s Ophelia is a clever maiden that defies the damsel in distress trope, and two female side characters, a formidable wood-dwelling herbalist named Machtild, and Hamlet’s Queen Mother, Gertrude, an opportunistic power player also bring strength and weight to the film.
But, most strikingly, the empowering spirit of Ophelia comes from its hopefulness. Ophelia breathes new life into the tragic heroine, who has always been relegated to the moody Danish prince’s side piece, more an accessory than a human being, in Hamlet’s original play and various incarnations. But this time Horatio (Devon Terrell) isn’t the lone survivor in the kerfuffle of poisoned blades, Norwegian invasion, tainted wine, and avunculicide. In director Claire McCarthy’s revisionist and feminist take, Ophelia is an empowered heroine who uses her wits to escape an on-the-brink-of-war Denmark and the same fate of her beloved Danish prince. Although Ophelia may at first seem passive, watching the betrayals from behind curtains and tucked out of sight in the castle’s shadowy corridors, her keen eyes and mind cobble together a plan to break free from the toxic and tangled web of lies and the white-hot rage and thirst for revenge and power that drives Claudius, Hamlet, and Laertes. Her self-restraint is key as the men around her, drunk with power in the case of Claudius, hungry for revenge in Hamlet’s case, and blinded by fury in Laertes’s case, rage across the screen like emotional tornadoes. Even in love, and her storybook romance with Hamlet, she stays thoughtful and grounded.
Daisy Ridley carries Ophelia with quiet courage, integrity, and an agency that’s refreshing to see in a heroine in a romantic drama and period picture. Ridley’s understated performance shows that her acting chops go far beyond blockbuster science fiction heroines in galaxies far far away.
Ridley’s character isn’t the only impressive part of Ophelia. The striking visuals and editing, lavish costumes and substantial narrative unify to make the film soar. Add to that Academy Award-winning composer Steven Price elegant and fierce score, peppered throughout with the ethereal, emotionally rousing chorus, “Doubt thou the stars are fire /Doubt that the sun doth move/Doubt truth to be a liar/ But never doubt I love.” and a breathtaking and show-stopping opening sequence and it’s apparent Ophelia is just as remarkable as its titular heroine.
Ophelia’s filmmakers are unafraid to take creative liberties and go beyond a mere direct page to screen adaptation by giving extra attention to the perspectives of the other women characters. With Queen Gertrude Ophelia addresses the often unspoken invisibility and sexlessness of aging women and the double standards between Gertrude and her “distinguished” and “wise” aging male counterparts. Her side plots and purposeful and give more context to her questionable decision making, before her ultimate redemption in the final scenes of the film. With Mechtild (also Naomi Watts), a character created exclusively for the film, Ophelia prods at the problematic history of eccentric and nonconformist women, often nature-loving outsiders, being accused of witchcraft and punished ruthlessly for it.
Ridley’s emotionally stirring performance, the art-house cinematography, and nearly intoxicatingly thrilling instrumental masterpieces, Ophelia is a formidable trifecta of haunting beauty, heartbreak, and hope. This time, Hamlet’s once tragically underserved and undervalued heroine is no tragic victim. She weathers the woe, perseveres in the face of all the adversary hurled her way, and she never loses sight of her values. Just like the fire, stars, and the sun, Ophelia dazzles.