Macbeth’ stripped to the essentials

For more than three decades Joel Coen has been credited as the director of the series of surreal visions he and his brother Ethan created as the Coen Brothers. Though Ethan always took the producing credit, by all accounts of those fortunate enough to have worked with the brothers, they were, on set, a two-headed entity with both in charge of every aspect of the 18 feature films they have made together since 1984. So it was with some surprise last year that Joel Coen announced that he and his younger brother would not be working together on his next project, an adaptation of Macbeth starring Denzel Washington and the director’s wife, three-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand. There was no acrimonious divorce between the brothers and no shocking revelations were shared other than the fact that, on this particular project, Joel would be directing and Ethan had decided to step away and pursue other productions.

Joel Coen’s first solo effort, while offering an intriguing and rigorous onscreen Shakespeare adaptation, still fits comfortably within the overall library of Coen Brothers’ films. The play is reduced to its essential plot points and the action is set within the tightly confined, austere, black and white square-framed settings that create atmosphere through careful use of light and shadow, which makes this version of Macbeth unique.

Washington is outstanding in the role of Macbeth, giving the fatally ambitious Scottish Thane a gravity and internal angst thanks to his careful physicality and even more admirably controlled vocal delivery. He’s adequately — if a little surprisingly underwhelmingly — supported by McDormand, whose Lady Macbeth isn’t given quite the space she needs to expand the interpretation of her character beyond the ruthless, power-hungry, devoted wife we’ve come to expect.

That’s not a fatal flaw, because it’s in the support casting and evocation of the deeply unsettling uncanniness that surrounds the couple that Coen elevates his version above more melodramatic, overly tricky screen versions. Particular kudos must go to British theatre actress Kathryn Hunter whose witches, with their grotesque contortions and gleeful mischief, provide some of the film’s most memorably strange and haunting moments. Comic stalwart and longtime Coen regular Stephen Root’s brief turn as the porter offers a masterclass in farcical prescience.

It’s all moodily controlled and creepily scored by composer Carter Burwell, a longtime Coen collaborator. It ultimately offers a shorter, sharper, undeniably unique and intelligent pricking of the Shakespearean cinematic thumb that brings home the unnatural weirdness that envelops the action of the play while not deterring from its single greatest and most enduring aspect — the words. ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ is available on Apple TV