Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Feature film adaptation of Shakespeare's Scottish play about General Macbeth whose ambitious wife urges him to use wicked means in order to gain power of the throne over the sitting king, Duncan.
Justin Kurzel's Macbeth is visually stunning — Roger Deakins-esque slow-motion battle sequences bathed in amber and crimson make the cinematography genuinely exceptional. Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard deliver powerful, physically committed performances that elevate the material. The plot is Shakespeare, so inherently strong but constrained by familiarity. The adaptation's novelty lies more in its visceral visual style than any radical reinvention of the text — it's a handsome, serious version but not a transformative one. The ending, while appropriately bleak, feels slightly rushed and emotionally truncated compared to the grandeur of what precedes it.