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Movie Review: 'Macbeth'

By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's not necessary for us to see Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard take on the demanding and iconic roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth for us to recognize the extent of their respective thespian gifts.

After all, we've already experienced his work in Steve Jobs, 12 Years a Slave (bringing an Oscar nomination), Hunger, Inglourious Basterds, two X-Men flicks, and Shame, and hers in La Vie en Rose (winning an Oscar), Inception, Rust and Bone, Midnight in Paris, The Dark Knight Rises, and Two Days, One Night (another Oscar nomination).

But this makes it more or less official that these are two very special talents.

Pity, then, that this latest screen version of William Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth – previous adaptations having come from directors including Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, and Roman Polanski -- doesn't take as much advantage of their involvement as it might have.

2½
(2½ stars out of 4)

Not that this Macbeth, which many consider the Bard's darkest play, doesn't allow for superior acting. But it's just not fitted to the two stars as an entertaining showcase.

Fassbender plays the title character, a Scottish nobleman/general who, according to a witches' prophecy, will one day be crowned King of eleventh-century Scotland.

But it cannot happen soon enough for his wife, played by Cotillard, who is so politically ambitious and intent on gaining power, she urges her husband to do whatever it takes – whatever it takes – to make the prophecy come true. And the sooner the better.

So battle-scarred, world-weary Macbeth kills the King and takes the throne.

Ah, but keeping the throne is not quite so easy, even for someone who's wildly paranoid and willing to kill anyone who gets in his way.

Australian director Justin Kurzel (The Snowtown Murders) has added several muddy, bloody, silent battle sequences, some of it in slow motion, while screenwriters Todd Louiso, Jacob Koskoff, and Michael Lesslie have trimmed considerable dialogue and added a telling scene at the beginning that departs from Shakespeare's play and adds a layer that makes the already fascinatingly manipulative character of Lady Macbeth and the Macbeths' motivations that much more psychologically complex.

There's certainly nothing technically wrong with the interpretations or line readings of Fassbender and Cotillard. But they get swallowed up and swept away by the oppressively dreary tone.

The supporting cast is led by David Thewlis as King Duncan, Paddy Considine as Banquo, and Sean Harris as Macduff. But neither they nor the two leads manage to break through the one-note ponderousness and establish compelling characters with lives that extend beyond the confines of the screen.

There is, that is, a lacking in both theatricality and intimacy that keeps the film from reaching across the time period to connect with and resonate for a modern audience.

In short, the film never "breathes."

So we'll murder 2½ stars out of 4 for the latest big-screen version of Macbeth.

No one's saying that this Macbeth is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Or that something wicked this way comes. Just that our admiration for the admittedly impressive "staging'' we're watching leaves us very cold indeed.

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