There are many lessons like Elvira Lind’s ”King Hamlet“Seems to want viewers to learn: Shakespeare’s timeless language is still a source of wisdom for those who go through difficult times. Life is a bicycle, and the sting of looking at loved ones may be calm with the joy of welcoming new children in the world. And opinions if it is much less valuable than the people who pour his own blood Going through it, Oscar Isaac Is extremely handsome and charming.
All mortals have flaws, so I think it is very unlikely that Isaac is the first really perfect man to ever go to earth. But After seeing this windy documentary directed by his wifeWho documents the actor when he plays Hamlet in a New York production for a year when he lost his mother and became a father, I do not think the opportunity can be excluded. It can be expected from one film Whose production was such a family business, and “King Hamlet” is understood better as a good collection of memories that Lind and Isaac considered worth preserving than a real behind the scenes look at the Broadway-creative process. But what the documentary can lack rigority, it compensates with charm and a well -meaning message about the healing power of art.
2017 was a big year for Oscar Isaac. Juilliard degree And lifelong Shakespeare Geek finally got the chance to play his dream role in a public theater production directed by Tony winner Sam Gold, and he liked every step in the creative process. But between the debates on how to change the spell of a single word can change the meaning of a whole line, he had many personal problems to juggle. His mother dies after a long hospital distance and Lind was pregnant with her first child. He had spent months at his mother’s side reading passages from “Hamlet” as a way to Both creative preparations And mutual grief processing and now returned to New York to first dive to rehearsals before an incredible summer at two-shows a day with a new child at home. Everything to deal with his mother’s affairs, comforting his grieving large family and sometimes flies to London for the “Star Wars” reshoots.
Although they are overwhelmed with life’s burdens, Isaac’s enthusiasm for Shakespeare is infectious, and there is pleasure to find to see him process his own pain through creation. He has his share of painful moments when the pressure is short, but watching him tie with his newborn son while he runs lines and having creative discussions with gold over the speaker phone is a reminder of one of life’s most bitter -sweet lessons: it continues. We never forget the people we love, but the darkness will eventually bleach enough to make new happy memories. Looking at Isaac and Lind Navigate in everything leaves you with a cosmic sense of satisfaction that things work properly.
Lind is the only person who could possibly direct “King Hamlet”, as the film’s greatest strength is its sense of intimacy. No one else’s camera would ever have been welcomed into her home so often during the first month of their son’s life, and Isaac’s genuine relaxation around her gives the movie an fly-on-the-Wall quality that feels more like home films (with better movie!) Than typical documentary images. Her stimulation is completely elegant, which means that Isaac’s grief and joy can develop to the same extent from the beginning of the rehearsal process to the end of the production, which assigns enough time to the darker moments without pulling the mood for a long time.
If “King Hamlet” has any inheritance as a movie, it will probably be a comfort clock for Isaac’s superfans and Shakespeare -hanged. It will not join the Canon of Great Nonfiction Cinema, but I do not doubt that many viewers will discover to look at a shirt -free Oscar Isaac play with an adorable child while quoting Shakespeare is a great use of 89 minutes.
Rating: B.
“King Hamlet” premiered at 2025 Telluride Film Festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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