Macbeth Movie Review

Directed by Justin Kerzel, Macbeth is an adaptation of the famous William Shakespeare play of the same name, telling the story of a Scottish Thane who after hearing a prophecy that he will one day become King of Scotland murders the King he once served. However after the fateful deed is done, he and his wife who spurred him on to commit the heinous act become consumed with guilt as they begin to lose touch with their sanity.

It probably comes to no surprise that the standout qualities of Macbeth are the acting performances delivered by the two leads, both of whom take to the roles as if they were born to do so. Michael Fassbender is truly terrific as Macbeth. His performance completely encapsulated the looming insanity of his character, striking a fine and measured balance between repulsiveness and sympathy. He is definitely Oscar-worthy in what turns out to be yet another stellar performance from a man who just might be one of the most committed and naturally talented actors in Hollywood.

But Marion Cotillard's portrayal of Macbeth's wife is just as good as, if not better than, Fassbender's work. She really has a lot of layers to work around with her character in a performance which asks a lot from her in terms of emotional range. She delivers acting of the highest quality as always. While some may argue the screenwriters missed a few opportunities to flesh out her character and make her even more compelling, I would disagree with them and say that I really enjoyed the direction the film took her. While Macbeth's perception of what is real and what is to be questioned falters, his wife seems to remain incredibly calm despite her involvement in the King's murder.

And I think one Cotillard monologue in particular which disproves my previous statement is my favourite scene of the entire film. Director Kerzel locks the camera onto her for a good couple of minutes in what became the most absorbing scene of the entire film for me. His direction of these scenes allowed the actors to truly showcase their unbelievable talent.

Macbeth is also a film which is visually immaculate. There are so many shots in this film which would give artsy filmmakers instant hard-ons. It is one of the best films of the year in terms of its aesthetics. A lot of the shots they accomplish do an excellent job at not just powerful, visual storytelling, but bringing to life the murky, cold and creepy environments in which the film takes place in. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the majority of the shots in this film could be framed as paintings, which is testament to the film's cinematographer Adam Arkapaw.

The musical score is also one of the year's best. However, despite the fact that this film may showcase some of the best acting and visuals of 2015 so far, there are still three things about Macbeth that I wasn't such a huge fan of. The first is to do with the film's pacing. The runtime doesn't overstay it's welcome however there are a vast number of scenes which seem to go on for way too long without clearly functioning as a character development scene or a narrative developing scene. Don't get me wrong, when this is done with the main focus on the acting performance being given it really works, but it doesn't all the time.

My second issue is something which may not bother you, but as someone who loves to examine the way film's are constructed I found issue with Macbeth's stylistic inconsistencies. For example, there is a battle sequence early on in the film where I thought the two different filmmaking styles in action didn't mesh well together. In fact, I think they came into direct conflict with each other on more than one occasion. One minute Macbeth is utilising a suspense-driven hand-held style, the next a deeply artistic style with focus on visual imagery, done so using super-slow motion techniques. To me, they didn't work well together at all.

And finally, my biggest issue with Macbeth is the dialogue. Because I'm stupid and I'm not well informed with Middle-English and Shakespearean language, I found the movie's dialogue hard to follow. For me, this hurt my viewing experience as I found it difficult to latch onto basic things such as character motivation. At times, the amazing visual imagery just wasn't enough for my own personal understanding of what was going on. But if you're well into Shakespeare you will love this new incarnation of the story.

Macbeth is not a film I can recommend that everyone should go see. It's definitely one to watch for people who love great acting and for aspiring cinematographers out there if you can get past the Shakespearean dialogue. However, I think fans of the original play will be very pleased with the way this film has turned out so to them I would thoroughly recommend you watch it:


Rating - B-

Thanks for reading,
Matt