Based on a play by Tom Stoppard, who also debuts as a movie director here, the movie focuses on the two famous sycophants from Shakespeare's masterpiece; while we see glimpses of the bigger picture, we follow the events unraveling at Elsinore through the eyes of Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth), a surreal and perplexed duo striving to keep up with the machinations surrounding them.
But keep up they don't. Apparently unconscious of the narrative tropes of drama, the two watch the major players with feelings ranging from surprise to fright. "What's he doing?" wonders one of them as they spy Hamlet delivering one of his famous monologues. "Talking... to himself" is the quizzical answer. A cocktail between Shakespeare, Beckett and the Monty Pythons. What's not to like about it?
Oldman and Roth are great, playing these two oddballs with a dream-like confusion, and yet making them sympathetic instead of obnoxious buffoons. Roth's Guildenstern is the straight man, while Oldman's Rosencratz displays a bemused, childish confusion. Richard Dreyfuss is charismatic as The Player; Ian Glen is an interesting Hamlet.
But the star is Stoppard's dialogue - clever, funny and very quotable.
7,5/10
But keep up they don't. Apparently unconscious of the narrative tropes of drama, the two watch the major players with feelings ranging from surprise to fright. "What's he doing?" wonders one of them as they spy Hamlet delivering one of his famous monologues. "Talking... to himself" is the quizzical answer. A cocktail between Shakespeare, Beckett and the Monty Pythons. What's not to like about it?
Oldman and Roth are great, playing these two oddballs with a dream-like confusion, and yet making them sympathetic instead of obnoxious buffoons. Roth's Guildenstern is the straight man, while Oldman's Rosencratz displays a bemused, childish confusion. Richard Dreyfuss is charismatic as The Player; Ian Glen is an interesting Hamlet.
But the star is Stoppard's dialogue - clever, funny and very quotable.
7,5/10