A horrible and violent war between corrupted cops and a dangerous gang of drug dealers that leads to great havoc and destruction, but only one man can end that havoc.
... strips down the Bard's narrative and ramps up the sex and violence, which is fine, but as with other such projects, the anachronistic dialogue is awkward and the storytelling is muddled and convoluted.
Michael Almereyda's modernized adaptation of Cymbeline comes to the screen with a number of flaws, including an overstuffed plot and a questionable structure.
"Cymbeline" has been branded a tragedy, a tragicomedy and a romance, and Mr. Almereyda embraces all three categories. The movie is by turns grim, grimly amusing and romantic, sometimes at once.
A mash-up of social media shortcomings and Shakespearean tragedy that becomes as much a tale of cinematic ambition gone awry as anything the Bard intended.
Almereyda never gives us a reason why this particular Shakespeare story is relevant for today, and thus worthy of being retold. Perhaps he watched too much Sons of Anarchy?
Almereyda is back at it fourteen years later with Cymbeline, a dramatically clunkier Shakespeare play, both in and of itself and for the challenges it presents to a modern adaptation.
What we get-a bitty and begrimed romance-has a lyrical sway of its own, and, even if some of the cast seem lost in the lines, Hawke returns to save the day, and the movie.
