Hamlet 2
My lone trip to the Sundance Film Festival, in 2003, left me convinced that audiences there were not to be trusted. Anything with the slightest hint of edge or subversion, no matter how shoddy, is embraced by festival-goers who want to believe it was worth the effort to squeeze into a packed screening. So when Focus Features paid 10 million dollars to acquire “Hamlet 2” after a rapturous reception at Sundance, I made a mental note to temper my expectations. I had no idea how low I needed to go. “Hamlet 2” isn’t just soulless and artificially quirky, like “Little Miss Sunshine.” It’s truly dreadful, a shapeless and tone-deaf series of riffs on the theme of humiliation. The typically reliable Steve Coogan delivers a tiresome performance as Dana Marschz, a cartoonishly inept high school drama teacher. He’s a fringe supporting player thrust into the center of every scene, and the scrutiny doesn’t flatter him. The best Coogan can muster is a banal sort of pathos. Catherine Keener seethes with droll contempt as Dana’s wife, and Elisabeth Shue sparkles as a washed-up version of herself, but the filmmakers aren’t interested in these formidable women, nor in Dana’s students, who never rise above stereotypes. “Hamlet 2” rousts itself at the climax for a couple of spirited, vulgar musical numbers from Dana’s ill-advised Shakespearean sequel. At this point it’s clear that the truly amateurish mess is not “Hamlet 2” the play; it’s “Hamlet 2” the movie.
LISTEN: Hamlet 2