Ophelia (2018)

Directed by Claire McCarthy. Starring Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, Clive Owen, George MacKay, Tom Felton, Devon Terrell, Daisy Head, Dominic Mafham, Sebastian De Souza. [PG-13]

Progressive spin on the Bard’s most famous work slots the indecisive Danish prince (MacKay) as a supporting player and retells the story through the eyes of Ophelia (Ridley), giving her not just prominence, but agency and wiles as well. Based on a YA novel from Lisa Klein, the language has been made plain and fruitless (and when characters pine for one another, borderline insipid). The novelty of seeing familiar characters and scenes in altered ornamentation maintains the pitch of curiosity throughout, but too little here brings a bold or fresh perspective to the material, just revisionism-via-empowerment. Ridley lends Ophelia a dignified pilot light to keep her stubborn resolve aflame even when the conceit fails her, but Owen seems utterly disinterested playing the most plebeian Claudius imaginable. Plodding nature aside, it is an intriguing twist to have Ophelia slyly faking the growing madness that her character is best known for; a few more contortions like that—without going so far afield of the original tale (the ending, anyone?)—might have made it a nifty little experiment.

52/100