Hamlet 90

We have seen this play many times, sometimes abridged, and many adoptions by various artists and groups, such as Sir Laurence Oliver, Richard Burton, Dame Judith Anderson, Nicol Williamson, Richard Chamberlain, Derek Jacobi, Campbell Scott, Mel Gibson, even (icky poo) Ethan Hawke. Each brings a unique plus that makes it hard to say which is best. And threatened to be played by Shelley Long in "Outrageous Fortune"

That said Kevin Kline is top notch. One attribute is that this version seemingly uncut is spoken clear. Maybe because it is a stage version filmed close enough that they did not have to shout.

When Kevin builds up in the close-up you forget all the trivial things like Hamlets age. And you actually feel that you are there.

Prince Hamlet loses his father the king. It is unnerving to him that his mother should marry his uncle so soon that the funeral baked meat set the wedding table. Then comes the shocker. His father's ghost suggested that the uncle and wife did him in while asleep. How will hamlet handle this news and what consequence will it have on the people around him?

Kline has some wonderful bits of "business," too: tearing the page out of the book and sticking it on Polonius's forehead, pointing to the book after Polonius hears him say "tedious old fools" as if he is merely reading, clasping Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's heads to his chest once he has decided he cannot trust them -- all very clever. (However, the scene were he dangles Ophelia like a puppet is a bit overdone.) Laertes cutting Hamlet on the hand during a break is a good choice too (Laertes should not be able to lay a glove on Hamlet without cheating). On the other hand, Kline's version of Hamlet's feigned madness seems quieter than the "antic disposition" the character claims he will "put on."

The rest of the cast is not as strong, unfortunately. Josef Summer captures Polonius's egotism and foolishness, but we get no sense of the cunning that has made him a power at court. Diana Venora plays Ophelia with a little too much self-awareness and resignation for her mad scene to be believable when it arrives. Dana Ivey is a fine Gertrude, but the role is not one of the play's strengths. Worst of all, Brian Murray hardly registers as Claudius, who can be played as purely evil, as tormented by guilt, as a decadent drunkard, or even as a reluctant murderer, but here is a puffed non-entity.

Most productions of "Hamlet" make cuts, and Kline's choice is to remove all the politics. An actor is listed playing Fortinbras, but I cannot remember him (though it has been a few months since I have watched this version). We neither see nor hear much about him, which robs the play of some of its power: Hamlet, Fortinbras, and Laertes are three men in the same position; their differing responses -- respectively that of the Renaissance philosopher and poet, the modern military man, and the hothead -- provide one of the most basic themes of the play.

But "Hamlet" is not merely a personal or family play; it is also a play about nations, about the damage a ruler of bad character does to a country's reputation. As the gravedigger tells us, Hamlet was born the day his father slew the elder Fortinbras; Hamlet's life exactly spans the period of Denmark's ascendancy over Norway. In a sense, he is born to remedy a cosmic error. All of that is gone (as are other more minor but still missed elements such as the character of Reynaldo, and some of the comments on acting and the theatre). Fortunately, Kline rejects any facile Freudianism, such as we see in the Gibson/Zeffireli version.

The staging is simple. About the most you can say of it is that neither it nor the costumes distract us from the acting. The lighting, however, is quite elegant, and the camera work intimate without causing claustrophobia.

Overall and despite its flaws, Kline's "Hamlet" remains a skillful and moving effort, ennobled by the actor's sensitive and thoughtful portrayal of literature's first and greatest modern man.