Cinematic Shakespeare adaptations are a tricky proposition in 2025, doubly so when talking about his best known works like “Hamlet.” For one, there’s already an endless pile of filmed takes on the material to revisit, many of which hold up quite well. If you’re looking for a faithful adaptation of the original drama, you won’t do better than Kenneth Branagh’s definitive 1996 film, which contains the entire Shakespearean text. On the other end of the spectrum, everything from “The Lion King” to “Sons of Anarchy” has fed elements of the original story to modern audiences who didn’t even have to realize they were watching Shakespeare. And with over 50 other filmed versions of the text, you can find just about any middle ground between those two extremes that your heart desires.
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Whenever a new “Hamlet” movie comes out, the first question is always “why?” And the answer is always “actors.”
Cynically speaking, great actors want to play great roles and their involvement is often enough to move the needle in the world of indie film financing, so the well of “Hamlet” and “Macbeth” and “King Lear” movies is unlikely to ever run dry. A more optimistic take on the matter would say that watching new actors deliver their own takes on these dramas is one of life’s great pleasures. There’s a reason that these revivals have kept the lights on at many a theatre company over the years.
Either way, Riz Ahmed is the reason for Aneil Karia’s new “Hamlet” movie that’s debuting on the festival circuit this fall. The “Sound of Metal” star steps into the legendary Prince of Denmark’s shoes with all of the intensity you’d expect, bringing a blistering energy that almost seems more fitting for the stage than the screen. It creates a disconnect between the realism of Karia’s staging and the relative restraint of co-stars like Joe Alwyn, Morfydd Clark, and Art Malik that some might find off-putting, but ultimately works towards the film’s ultimate goal of emphasizing his descent into madness.
Karia takes the well-tread story of a prince who begins to see ghosts after his father’s death and his uncle’s ascent to the throne and sets it in contemporary India. Ahmed’s Hamlet is the heir to a lucrative construction company, and his father’s death amid the final stretch of a massive development project has caused suspicion.
The director does an excellent job of nailing the small details required to translate Shakespeare’s verse into the realism of film. Thinking of a modern concept that vaguely involves family and power struggles to impose onto “Hamlet” is the easy part, but many a filmmaker is tripped up by the unglamorous work of finding the textual moments to motivate transitions and places to add the contemporary flourishes without damaging the text. Battles are won with tactics but wars are won with logistics, and his competent directing, paired with screenwriter Michael Lesslie’s efficient cut of the script (which gives you everything you need to know and gets you out in under two hours), saves this adaptation from many of the subgenre’s worst pitfalls.
There’s no denying that the concept is executed well, but the film’s legacy will come down to whether it significantly adds anything to the play. Other than giving actors of largely Indian and Pakistani descent a chance to play these roles, there’s not much textual richness to be found that you couldn’t find in plenty of other recent adaptations. That’s the paradox of adapting Shakespeare in a world where we have access to nearly every movie ever made at any given time. The bard’s devotees will rightfully insist that his language is so timeless that it’s just as riveting now as it was in Stratford-Upon-Avon during his lifetime. But if we believe that to be true, doesn’t that mean that all of the other film adaptations remain equally timeless? We can keep dressing these characters in new costumes and putting them in modern office buildings or spaceships until the end of time, but fatigue inevitably sets in.
But you have to admire the passion that these works continue to elicit from the people who make them. I’m not sure this particular adaptation has enough originality to truly enhance the canon of cinematic Shakespeare movies. But you know who does? Riz Ahmed. He pours everything he has into his shot at the foundational role of Western drama, and both Shakespeare and Ahmed acolytes will want to experience his stellar delivery of the play’s most iconic monologue while speeding down a highway with his hands removed from the steering wheel.
“To be or not to be” is the question that every filmmaker considering a new take on Hamlet should seriously ask themselves before they embark on a project, but this one makes it clear that the genre is alive and well for the moment.
Grade: B-
“Hamlet” premiered at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival. Focus Features will release it at a later date.
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