MOVIE REVIEW
“OPHELIA”
Rated PG-13. At West Newton Cinema.
Grade: C+
Based on a 2006 young adult novel by Lisa Klein, “Ophelia” retells the story of Shakespeare’s Ophelia, the doomed love interest of the prince in “Hamlet,” who was previously best known for a mad scene and a wet, flowery death. Daisy Ridley — aka Rey in “The Force Awakens” and its sequel — plays the title role, and in opening voice-over, her Ophelia tells us she will tell her story herself. Got that?
In opening scenes, Ophelia and her brother Laertes are ragamuffin children covered in grime in spite of being the offspring of courtier Polonius (Royal Shakespeare vet Dominic Mafham) and not some shepherd’s kids. They are in the court of King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts) and friends with the young Prince Hamlet.
After being taking under wing by the queen, Ophelia, whose brother (Tom Felton of “Harry Potter”) has taught her how to read, grows up to be a “low born” lady-in-waiting. Nevertheless, she attracts the romantic attention of a grown Prince Hamlet (a blandly likable George MacKay), who returns from his studies in Wittenberg — vivisection among them — with his friend Horatio (Devon Terrell).
While Ophelia notices the king’s brother Claudius (Clive Owen in a bad wig) dallying with the queen, Hamlet finds himself goaded by his uncle to spar with swords. At the same time, the queen sends Ophelia into nearby woods to find a witch named Mechtild (also Watts) and get a potion the queen needs. I found this dual role-playing by Watts confusing at first (Which witch is which?), until I heard the back story of Gertrude and Mechtild. Then, I just found it implausible like much of the other alterations. Before you know it, Ophelia and Hamlet fall in love and have a secret life.
The story both follows the pattern laid by Shakespeare and veers away from it to tell it from a more feminist point of view, which is fine. At one point, Klein appears to borrow a bit from Shakespeare’s other star-crossed lovers when she introduces a potion Mechtild brews from the poison of a snake “from the New World” that mimics death.
Before you know it, the king is dead. Hamlet is mad. Norway is about to invade. A grieving Ophelia has a rendezvous with a creek, and I wanted out.
Screenwriter Semi Chellas (“The Romanoffs”) retains snippets of Shakespeare’s language. But the dialogue is otherwise easily digestible snippets and short sentences (e.g., “Sit. Eat.”). Director Claire McCarthy (“The Waiting City”) has trouble staging the action scenes persuasively. As a tale derived from “Hamlet,” “Ophelia” is not in the same league as Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” “Ophelia,” which features polite, sexually suggestive scenes, is more like a bad episode of “Game of Thrones.”
The court in “Ophelia” is as diverse as the one in last year’s “Mary Queen of Scots.” But making the band at a masked ball entirely people of color seems like a vaguely racist cliche to me.
“Ophelia,” which was shot in the Czech Republic, boasts impressive costume and candle-lit set design. Ridley’s flaming red hair is not very flattering, and she does not have much chemistry with MacKay.
Something is not exactly rotten in this film’s state of Denmark. But it smells.
(“Ophelia” contains violence and polite sexually suggestive scenes.)
