Hugely acclaimed on their release, I have only just got around to watching this tetralogy of films based on the plays by William Shakespeare - and they're rubbish. The biggest problem is the casting: Ben Whishaw plays Richard II as a laughably fey figure, whilst Tom Hiddleston as (the future) Henry V is too introverted and skinny to convince as either a daredevil wastrel (Henry IV Parts 1 & 2) or a mighty warrior king (Henry V). These central failures destroy much of the fine work done by the other actors (Patrick Stewart, Simon Russell-Beale etcetera). This is compounded by the lousy direction, which is flat and lifeless. The locations are wasted and used largely as mere backgrounds (barring the near-blasphemous linking of the dead Richard II and Jesus Christ through a slow shot of a life-size wooden crucifix). Whilst I don't mind the prose delivery of Shakespeare's verse, the way in which it is done is terrible; the actors are left to speechify to an unmoving camera, without any of the movement or visual flow necessary to successfully adapt from the stage to screen. The choice of setting is also odd, with the production trying for a pseudo-historical look but getting the costumes all wrong (rubber fantasy armour, Darth Vader helmets, and turbans!) and persisting with the official policy of colour-blind casting (which is sure to mislead some people) despite its ludicrous incongruity in this context. Much of the budget appears to have been wasted on sub-"Saving Private Ryan" battles, leaving Tom Hiddleston to give (his rather weedy version of) the Crispin's Day Speech to about five people, all of whom are aristocrats (thereby undermining the whole point of the speech). Symptomatic of the whole farrago is that Larry Olivier's 70-year old version of "Henry V" is better acted, more historically accurate, more inventively staged and better directed - so you're better off watching that instead!
Review of The Hollow Crown
