Admirable, yet never registering as more than a stunt, writer-director Michael Almereyda’s adaptation sets Shakespeare’s tragedy – original language and all – amid the corporate culture of 2000 New York (here it’s the Denmark Corporation that’s corrupted). This modernity allows for some sly wit and nifty touches – Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) delivers the “to be or not to be” speech in the Action aisle of a Blockbuster; his father’s ghost first appears on a video surveillance screen – but I was always aware of these moments as clever gimmicks. In adding to Shakespeare’s text, Almereyda ultimately takes away from it.
