It's Shakespeare's play re-set in 1930's England with Ian McKellen as the villainous Richard of Gloucester murdering everyone between him and the throne and then going fascist – not terribly distant from what might have happened if Edward VII had not abdicated, though perhaps without some of the murder to get there since he was already there. Here, watch the trailer and see for yourself. It's a reasonable representation of what the movie holds:
Be sure to embiggen this trailer to watch. It's much better that way.
There are lots of touches that bring this film to life. Foremost, the post-WWI yet-not-quite-WWII feel of the technology stands out. For example, when the dowager queen departs for France it is not by ship but instead aboard a de Haviland Dragon Rapide, a wonderfully-named short-haul airliner that was more or less the last of the biplanes. Cigarettes everywhere, in keeping with the style of times. It's an immersive experience, just close enough to living memory that it doesn't seem as foreign as the velvet pantaloons usually associated with Shakespeare productions.
Now for the one down side, the sound mix is abysmal. Between the mix, the archaic dialect, and too many muttered lines, ten minutes in I was completely lost. Fortunately the disc had an English subtitles option, so things worked out. Compare to 1996's Romeo+Juliet, where both the actors' speech and the sound mix were clear as a bell, leaving the archaic English as a treat to work out on the fly. That combination brought Shakespeare's original words crackling back to life. Here, just turn on the subtitles from the start, sit back, and enjoy the movie. It's not quite as good, but it will do.
Bottom Line: 4 out of 5 stars. The sound mix could have been better, but the rest is as good as films get.
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