Barnes & Noble

In an audacious bit of artistic sleight of hand, playwright Tom Stoppard takes two marginal characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet and puts them at the center of tumultuous events, relegating the drama's principal figures -- Hamlet, Ophelia, and Claudius, among others -- to the background. Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth), very much confused about the state of things in Elsinore, lurch from conversation to conversation, conflict to conflict, without ever being aware what role they are destined to take in Hamlet's destiny. Stoppard, who not only adapted his 1967 play but directed this film version as well, devises some very clever dialogue for the two protagonists, who at times come off as a medieval Abbott & Costello. Or perhaps Laurel & Hardy: Oldman's Rosencrantz is very much the befuddled simpleton, while Roth's Guildenstern imagines himself cleverer than he really is. Richard Dreyfuss garners his fair share of laughs as a wandering performer drawn into their orbit, and the whole enterprise has the feeling of an extended Monty Python skit. Stoppard's direction leaves something to be desired: This is not a terribly cinematic film, and its stage origins are readily apparent. But the central conceit is a brilliant one that's executed with panache by a marvelous cast. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Much as he would later do with Shakespeare in Love (1998), writer Tom Stoppard delivered a tale of Shakespearean origin from a skewed and unexpected perspective. In this case, it's the perspective of two relatively minor characters from Hamlet, Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth), courtiers who, in the original play, were dispatched offstage before the narrative's conclusion. In Stoppard's script (which he also directed), the two supporting players take center stage as the events unfold in Elsinore Castle. Unable to determine the source of the prince's tortured despair, the duo ponders the question of fate as their predetermined roles are played out. Meanwhile, they dabble in a little verbal tennis and some ill-advised science experiments, and endure the puzzling attentions of mysterious wandering thespians led by (Richard Dreyfuss). Ordered to accompany Hamlet (Iain Glen) to England, the pair learn that the letter they carry instructs that nation's king to decapitate their mentally unbalanced and irksome charge, a revelation that Hamlet overhears. Karl Williams

Product Details

• UPC: 014381256222
• Source: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Time: 1:58:00
• Sales Rank: 14,660

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