DAISY BLOOMS
Star Wars actress makes her mark as Ophelia in feminist adaptation of Hamlet.
PARK CITY, UTAH— There are more things in heaven and Earth than perhaps even William Shakespeare dreamt of, and a feminist take on his testosterone-fuelled tragedy Hamlet would be one of them.
Nevertheless, it’s tempting to think the Bard would approve of what Australian director Claire McCarthy and Star Wars heroine Daisy Ridley are up to with Ophelia, which had its world premiere to cheers Monday at the Sundance Film Festival.
It’s a radical reimagining told from a woman’s point of view, that Mad Men writer Semi Chellas has adapted from a young adult novel, of the bloody tale of betrayal and revenge concerning the royal family dwellers of Elsinore Castle in Denmark.
“I really feel that this is an interesting time for this kind of a movie,” McCarthy told her Eccles Theatre audience prior to the screening, referring to the #MeToo movement that has consumed Hollywood, Sundance and the world beyond. The applause McCarthy received in answer was all the affirmation she needed.
The classic approach to Shakespeare’s Danish intrigue is from the POV of the title Prince Hamlet, played here by George MacKay ( Captain Fantastic). He returns home from distant studies for the funeral of his father, the king, to discover the throne the prince is supposed to inherit has been seized by his uncle Claudius (a strangely bewigged Clive Owen), who has also married his widowed mother, Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts).
These traditional rotten doings don’t really get going until about 45 minutes into the picture. Before this, there’s what amounts to a Hamlet prequel, featuring Ridley’s flame-haired Ophelia, finally getting her due and advising us via voiceover, “You may think you know my story.” Indeed, anyone who has ever taken an English or literature class knows Ophelia as Hamlet’s love interest whose stage time is brief, frustrating and ultimately tragic, since the male characters rule the roost.
Not so here. Much like her character Rey in the new Star Wars franchise, Ridley’s Ophelia is a determined loner and outsider, described as “wild” and “wilful” by others, who becomes one of Gertrude’s ladies-inwaiting almost by accident.
But Ophelia is also a woman of agency and integrity, who clocks very early on to what is really going on in Elsinore. She earns the trust of Gertrude but also the wrath of Claudius, who senses that Ophelia is onto his evil game and starts plotting against her.
Many liberties are taken with Shakespeare’s prose. These include the subplot addition of a potion-dispensing witch in the woods, also played by Watts, and the strengthening of young Hamlet’s character so he’s more warrior and lover and less the indecisive philosopher.
The language is also more modern than the Bard’s, more like Game of Thrones, as is the production design.
But Shakespeare is ever ripe for reinvention, and the changes made by McCarthy and Chellas are not only defensible but also invigorating, adding new layers of interest and intrigue to a well-told tale.
Best of all is seeing women come to the fore so strongly, not only through Ridley’s muscular performance but also through Watts’ considerably more nuanced one.
Oscar loves Sundance: Tuesday’s Oscar nominations showed the strength of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival slate, with Best Picture and other nominations for Sundance premieres Get Out and Call Me by Your Name, plus nods in various categories for The Big Sick, Mudbound and the sports doping documentary Icarus. I haven’t added up all the nominations yet and I’ve probably missed a couple of Sundance 2017 premieres in the Academy list, but it just goes to show you how Sundance is increasingly becoming an Oscars platform as much as an indie film showcase.