Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) Reviews

Sometimes a certain piece should just be left as whatever medium it was originally intended to be. Rosencratz & Guildenstern Are Dead is witty and takes a familiar subject matter from an acute angle, but it doesn’t make for a great feature film. It’s so obviously indentured to the stage, so dependent upon audience interaction and knowledge of Hamlet to thrive, that something is missing from the film version. It needs the visual tension of these two minimally important characters standing around while the important parts of Hamlet occur around them with little of Shakespeare’s dialog or situations being immediately obvious to them.

Or maybe it’s just that Tom Stoppard, great writer, is not that great of a director. The palette is bland, the pacing is off, but his actors are uniformly excellent. Tim Roth and Gary Oldman really can’t do any wrong, and they both equip themselves quite well to the comedic notes of the script. I’m used to the idea of Roth and Oldman as obsessives or villains that to see them play dim witted and gentile characters is almost transgressive. But they are an absolute joy to watch. Stoppard’s extended dialog or verbal back-and-forth volleying isn’t easy to master, but they both display a great affinity for the rhythm and cadence with it. Iain Glen makes for an incredibly handsome and melancholic Hamlet, while Richard Dreyfuss as the Player, the leader of a troupe of actors. He seems to be some kind of fourth-wall breaking character as he tips off the two main characters to their eventual fate while also making sure it happens, he’s a character made up of pure energy and Dreyfuss tries valiantly to steal the movie away. As an acting showcase, it’s dynamite. But like a lot of other film adaptations of great stage plays, something just didn’t quite transfer from stage to screen.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (or vice versa) find themselves in the middle of something that they have no power over. The movie (and play before it) is from the view of two of the most minor of characters from Hamlet. It's charm comes from the fact that they are so minor that the world buffets them from scene to scene with no will of their own, and they try to figure out their own purpose for existence. The banter is quick, and full of references from their own time and plenty of scientific revolutions to come as well. Takes full concentration, and it is more amusing if you are knowledgeable about the play Hamlet. But don't try and multi-task while watching this movie as it needs your full attention. Very Rewatchable.