Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2012

In his assured directorial debut, Ralph Fiennes brings one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies into the present day without losing a bit of its political resonance, and then seals the deal by putting in a title performance that’s as physically mesmerizing as the Bard’s words are brutal. A vicious Roman general is urged by the mother of all stage moms (Vanessa Redgrave) to run for consul. But his terrifying lack of empathy leads to his banishment, whereupon he joins forces with a former enemy (the limited Gerard Butler, wandering in from 300), to attack the city. Immediate, relevant and even prescient.