WARNING: If you want to spoil Shakespeare forever, see this movie!Almereyda both directed and adapted the play for the screen. Shakespeare's script is butchered. Some famous soliloquies are missing; some cut up and thrown all over the place; and some cut off mid-stream. The directing was okay, but I cannot forgive this man for taking Shakespeare's words and defecating all over them. He shows absolutely no respect for the originals, not that adapting is bad. I've seen wonderful adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, but this one is a true abomination.Some aspects of the screenplay make absolutely no sense. For example, what is the purpose of the Bill Clinton news clip in the middle of one of Hamlet's soliloquies? And one of the last shots, a vapor trail of a jet flying over some statue! Was that supposed to be one of the "flights of angels" singing Hamlet to his rest? Granted, artistic license and freedom of expression, but good grief! This was pathetic.

Hamlet (2000) was adapted to the screen and directed by Michael Almereyda. This Hamlet is set in contemporary New York City, but Almereyda has retained Shakespeare's language. Naturally, this makes for anachronisms and awkward moments. However, the transformation from Denmark as a nation to Denmark as a giant corporation worked for me. (Normally, I like Hamlet to be set in medieval Denmark, Romeo and Juliet in Renaissance Verona, etc. However, this particular leap over the centuries was interesting and effective.)For example, Hamlet's soliloquies work brilliantly on the stage, but they're a daunting challenge to a film director. Almereyda solves the problem by having Hamlet speaking into a video camcorder, so that we can hear him, although he's literally talking to himself.Ethan Hawke as Hamlet was excellent. He's a talented, solid actor in any movie in which he appears. He's even better in Hamlet--sullen and disaffected, with scorn for his mother's corporate lifestyle. Kyle MacLachlan plays Claudius, obviously a no-nonsense executive. With his cold demeanor and Cary Grant good looks, you can understand why Gertrude was drawn to him.To my mind the acting honors belonged to Julia Stiles as Ophelia. Stiles was 19 when the movie was made, and she was able to combine the eye-rolling behavior of an adolescent at one moment with the hurt, betrayed feelings of a young adult at the next moment. (One decision that Almereyda made didn't make sense to me. It looked as if Ophelia lived alone in a rough tenement building, which doesn't fit Shakespeare or NYC in the year 2000.) However, Stiles, with her exotic good looks, carried off her role like a seasoned professional.I greatly enjoyed this movie, and I was amazed to see that it has a truly dismal IMDb rating of 6.0. Why? In my opinion, the film's much, much, better than that. My suggestion--rent or buy the DVD, see Ethan Hawke as Hamlet, and then judge for yourself.

Really. This is a load of crock. The only market I can see for this is perhaps high-school students who really can't get a grip on Shakespeare's text. If you're hoping for a movie that stands on its own merits, or, alternately a Shakespeare text done well in feature film format you're bound to be very disappointed. In fact, you're bound to be disappointed no matter what. Unless of course, you have an all-blinding respect for one of the many famous lead actors. Maybe, just maybe, then you might have enjoyed it. As I'm sure many have. Perhaps a more apt title for this film might be "Hamlet - the guy who really got upset because the action section at Blockbuster was simply too limited".

I only give this 2 instead of 1, so that another may attempt a worse rendition of this play.The whole thing is like "90's slacker" meets "shakespeare" meets "typical modern use of little stylistic clips - to substitute for proper cinema" meets "artsy modern garbage".I particularly loathe Ethan's performance - uninspired, pretentious, and melodramatic. It's not that he can't act - he was great in Training Day. But the material with this format certainly doesn't suit. The cast in general has loads of great people, and the script is proved :-) So ... the director really screwed this up. Lastly, Bill Murray - Love him - but this is not the role for him.Save your time - truly - this version is not worth your time.