“Blood and betrayal, toil and trouble — filmmakers from Akira Kurosawa to Roman Polanski have taken on “Macbeth.” In his stripped-down version, Joel Coen pitches his expressionistic tent between cinema and theater, taking a lead from Orson Welles, whose 1948 adaptation was one of his last Hollywood films. Is this an ill omen from Coen? (This is the first movie he’s directed without his brother, Ethan.) Whatever the answer, the play is still the thing and so is a volcanic Denzel Washington, who ferociously embodies, as Welles put it, “the decay of a tyrant.” — MANOHLA DARGIS “Denzel Washington is a good actor, with a special flair for Shakespeare. Bruno Delbonnel’s black-and-white cinematography emphasizes the salt and pepper in Washington’s beard, and he plays the Thane of Cawdor as a weary, haunted old soldier, a tender soul pitched into cruelty and madness by ambition — his own and Lady Macbeth’s. That would be Frances McDormand, bringing viperish eloquence to this lean (under two hours), mean and lyrical reading of the Scottish Play” — A.O. SCOTT Contribute Hire me
Advertise Donate Team Contact Privacy Policy
