'Hamlet' goes awry at the Ryder Film Series

Even though it's been nearly 400 years since William Shakespeare passed away, Hollywood is still trying to milk his talent for all its worth, thanks mainly to the tasteless Miramax Films and the Oscar-minted success of the ridiculous "Shakespeare in Love."\nMost of these Shakespeare productions lack originality. After all, how can you expect them to be original? The few interesting recent attempts at Shakespeare ultimately turn out to be pretentious and empty egotrips -- namely Kenneth Branagh's "Love's Labour's Lost," Julie Taymor's "Titus" and Michael Almereyda's "Hamlet."\nWhile the new "Hamlet" is sleek and stylish, the film's modern-day setting is unexpectedly appalling. The film has shamelessly borrowed so many fresh ideas that worked wonders in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet." Unfortunately, these ideas seem to be too much of a stretch in "Hamlet" that they are almost laughable here. \nEthan Hawke is at his most moody in the title role. As you may have guessed, he is no Laurence Olivier. Hell, he's not even as good of a poseur as Branagh or Mel Gibson. Sporting orange-tinted shades and a wool hat, Hamlet aspires to be a digital filmmaker. As Hamlet screens an amateurish film he has made to confront his parents about the murder of his father, the film has gone so far that even the pretentious faux movie buffs will burst out into laughter.\nAny sensible moviegoer would hope that Hamlet's mom Gertrude (Diane Venora) and villainous step-dad Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan) will whip his grungy Gen-X ass and teach him some "reality bites" lessons. \nThe film's bizarre typecasting turns out to be a minor asset. Venora, MacLachlan, Julia Stiles (as Ophelia), Liev Schreiber (as Laertes) and Bill Murray (as Polonius) throw some interesting subtext to the otherwise outrageous screenplay. Carter Burwell's score and John de Borman's cinematography are ultimately the only decent elements in the film. \nTo see or not to see, that's not even a question. Don't expect high school English teachers to approve this "Hamlet," and don't expect high school students to find it "cool" either.