TIFF 11 Review: The Ralph Fiennes-Directed Coriolanus Is As Well-Acted As It Is Challenging > The Playlist

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TIFF 11 Review: The Ralph FiennesDirected Coriolanus Is As Well-Acted As It Is Challenging

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From what little we know of Shakespeares life, Coriolanus was one of his later tragedies; compared to his other works in the same vein, its one of his more complex ones, as well. It doesnt offer us a father betrayed, like King Lear, or a good man undone by his own wants, like Macbeth; instead, it gives us a Roman general who, in his hunger for war, devours his lifefamily, country, honorwhen the world will not let him be a warrior and, instead, insists he be a war hero. Thrust into politics, Coriolanus is a general, then a politician, and then despised by the people who called for his elevationleading him to ally with his hated Vosican enemy Tullus Aufidus to attack his own homeland in a fit of rage. As Ralph Fiennes big-screen directorial debut, Coriolanus is a remarkable effortso remarkable, in fact, that you might be excused for finding the parts more interesting than the whole, or rather the performances and direction more interesting than the actual play they fix on the screen. A cynic will suggest that Coriolanus is one of the few Shakespearean plays left in the canon to not get a recent film adaptationweve had Romeos, Macbeths and plenty of clowning comedies. Kenneth Branagh staked out traditional versions of both Henry V and Hamlet, while Ian McKellen gave us Pulp Shakespeare with his fascist and flinty Richard III. Fiennes gives us Coriolanus, playing Roman general Caius Martius, pitted in combat against the Vosican forces in general and against their leader Aufidus (Gerard Butler) specifically. In modern camouflage, shorn bald and toting a machine gun, Fiennes general sets the tonewe get updates on a Roman equivalent of CNN, with pentameter issuing from suit-clad talking heads through tinny TV speakers. The tone is less Romans-versus-Vosicans than Serbs-versus-Croatiansand the work of cinematographer Barry Ackroyd of The Hurt Locker, The Green Zone and The Wind that Shakes the Barley is no small help in that regard.

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TIFF 11 Review: The Ralph Fiennes-Directed Coriolanus Is As Well-Acted As It Is Challenging > The Playlist
+ Cinematical + CinemaBlend + Awards Daily Fiennes is a force of nature hereits as if after several years of profitably iconic noseless hissing as Lord Voldemort, he wanted to remind us he could act. As frightening as the general ishis siege of Coriolis is so brutal that after the conquest the honorific Coriolanus is appended to his very name his mother is worse. Played by Natasha Richardson, Volumnia is a cold terror. Had I a dozen sons I had rather 11 die nobly for their country than one out of action. Vanessa Redgrave is terrifying hereprecise and sharp, cutting bloodlessly. The generals wife, Virgilia, played by Jessica Chastain, just wants her husband home safelywhich is hard to imagine, as he seems not to care if that happens or not. And the senator Meneniusa bluff and booming Brian Coxpraises the general and tries to smooth his passage from the shouts of war to the whispers of politics. AndWho could imagine?Gerard Butler is surprisingly good as Aufidus, whether bellowing the warriors rage or musing on his wounds.

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Still, its hard to wrap your head around the play itselfCoriolanus isnt the story of a man betraying a nation from the top down (like Richard the III) or of a man betrayed by his family from within (like King Lear); instead, its the story of a man whose flaws fit into the shattered time until they look something like honor, who is then betrayed from both sides, by the mob below him (Lubna Azabal and Ashra Barhom) and the tribunes above (James Nesbitt and Paul Jesson, who feel like theyre on loan from In the Loopwhich is not meant as a dig, but, rather, a compliment). Coriolanus is a traitor were encouraged to root for, or a hero who betrays; its one of Shakespeares more complex roles, and its broken lesser actors. When Fiennes triumphs in the part, its more a measure of his brute blood-smeared intensity than anything more subtle or carefully shaped.
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John Logan (Gladiator) is credited with the screenplay adaptation, and the cleanliness of this iteration of the tale is to his credit; at the same time, Fiennes doesnt merely put the play on-screen. There are moments here of startling intimacywhispers, promises, threats, pleasthat could never work on the stage, where the actors voice must boom to the back rows; Fiennes also recognizes the visual possibilities of film, playing with place and space in a way that no theatrical production ever could. The fight scenes are a little too fastits hard to tell which Roman is doing what to which Vosican in some of the bigger action sequencesbut the dialogue scenes are smooth and lush, with the measured meter of Shakespeares language issuing from actors who know how to do so. Coriolanus has the earmarks of a passion project, to be certain, but it also has the hallmarks of an assured film from an actor who nonetheless clearly demonstrates he knows that it takes more than just the art of acting to create a work of cinematic art. [B-]

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TIFF 11 Review: The Ralph Fiennes-Directed Coriolanus Is As Well-Acted As It Is Challenging > The Playlist
James Rocchi posted to Films, Coriolanus at 8:15 pm on September 8, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (1) 8 |
1 0 Like

09/09/11 7:17 AM

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Played by Natasha Richardson, Volumnia is a cold terror. ?

By Ray H on September 8, 2011

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