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Cymbeline

Overplotted Shakespeare reimagining

Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet (2000) brilliantly contemporized and re-contextualized Shakespeare’s tragedy into a Gen-X saga starring Ethan Hawke as a moody, beleaguered prince threatened with a corporate takeover. But that was Hamlet. Cymbeline is an overplotted later work that hops between travesty and tragedy.

The story of an English king resisting his Roman overlords is now that of an outlaw biker chief (Ed Harris) going up against the cops in Rome, N.Y. Opinions will vary. I found it far too convoluted to be able to appreciate the Bard’s words, dramatically muddled, and not a little silly. Japanese title: Anarchy. (97 min)