A Few Thoughts On Ophelia (2018)

It is always folly to think one can improve upon Shakespeare, and such is clear when watching Ophelia, the 2018 film starring Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. Oddly, this film combines Hamlet and Romeo And Juliet, including a secret wedding between Hamlet and Ophelia, and drugs that make it look like Ophelia is dead. Yup, in this version, Ophelia only pretends to drown. To get Ophelia to survive to the end of the story, she takes a drug that makes her appear dead. By the way, I think that if you aren't dead, but are lying face-down in water for a good period of time, you would still drown. And Clive Owen, an actor that I usually love, is pretty awful here as Claudius, acting the villain at every moment he is on screen. However, the dumb show is done in a way that is fantastic. Seriously, I loved that scene. That was the best part of the film. And George MacKay does a good job as Hamlet. It is not the worst Shakespeare adaptation I've seen, but it is completely misguided. Where Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead succeeded, this film fails.