The Tragedy Of Macbeth

I saw this on the big screen tonight and was disappointed. From Joel Coen, I expected the tension, scariness and menace to be turned up to the max, but, if anything, they're played down.

Visually, the black-and-white, 1.33 Academy ratio cinematography is stunning; many shots of the gothic soundstage sets are a work of art in themselves. And the Dolby Atmos sound mix is sublime.

Going through reviews on imdb, a common theme is how great Denzel Washington is in the title role, which is mystifying. He's hands-down the worst Macbeth I've seen: his is very emotionally restrained, and he fails to convey the meaning of many of his lines. This Macbeth couldn't summon enough presence to toss a caber, never mind rule a kingdom or lead a battle.

Frances McDormand is excellent until the final twenty minutes when her descent into melancholia lacks credibility, and her American accent feels inappropriate, and jars. In fact, the accents from the whole cast are randomly all over the place, mainly soft American or British English, but none Scottish. Some consistency would not go amiss. It also doesn't help that Washington and McDormand are over thirty years too old for their parts.

Apart from the realisation of the witches, which is rather good, I am not sure Coen knows what he's doing with the rest. The plot feels like a fairly inconsequential tale of a couple of wrong-uns, not an exploration of the motivation behind pure evil, greed and passion, as can be found in the better stage productions.

Three stars.