The Tragedy of Macbeth

Joel Coen’s stylized and streamlined version of Shakespeare’s cautionary tale about ambition and paranoia among the nobles of a bleak 11th century Scotland will likely leave you marveling at its expressionistic filmy-ness and simultaneously searching Google to make sure your memories from 10th grade English are valid. Working in stunning black and white cinematography, Coen pays homage to the distorted artifice of German expressionism (massive sets, shafts of light, cameras set akimbo to capture the ruptured world from a disoriented perspective). But what is going on? Coen’s condensed script requires a review of the plot prior to viewing - @tmaxwelljones and I didn’t do this, so we had to stop the film around the 45-minute mark and engage in some research. Denzel Washington (as Macbeth) and Frances McDormand (as Lady Macbeth) speak the Shakespeare very well. And they strut and fret and emote as one would expect, but the brief candle of a script allows no room for any sort of meaningful characterization to develop. What motivates Washington’s Macbeth to go from “but I don’t want to kill the king” to murderous fiend in the blink of an eye? Ultimately, the film is full of bloated sound (the booming percussive roar of every single drop of blood) and muted fury (here a slit throat, there a severed head) signifying an exercise so focused on style that it misses on substance.