"Hamlet 2" (2008) - Movie Review

An overly enthusiastic and dramatic failed actor after facing so many rejections and mocking would be numb and indifferent to the surroundings of constant heckling. He would be terribly hurt inside but it no longer surfaces and habituates in ignoring it so conveniently wherein it not only gives the pleasure to the mocker but to him in moving on with his life. Steve Coogan’s Dana is one such and he goes through mockery personally as devastation and who knows is a bad actor. Dana’s attempt to come up with an original play is a sequel or more exactly pre-mid-quel (with whatever of the play we see) of the “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare.

Unknown about the “Hamlet” and its plot is not going to hinder any one in following the film. The movie connects on its right lines early in the movie and sinks down along with the time. It has one ending piece of fun as a musical yet collectively it evens up the missing factor of sense and laughs as it recedes. Despite that, Steve Coogan gives his heart and soul to this character. A man passionate about acting and has beaten down the path of trying and being rejected he believes that his teachings of the so much he knows to the future generation would help his life live a little peacefully.

The film narrates as a screenplay saying how Dana’s dreams chose Tucson to die permanently. A dry town with nothing up the prospect of art vibrancy but Dana with his loyal two students Rand Posin (Skylar Astin) and Epiphany Sellars (Phoebe Strole) puts up yearly play for people who seem to have got lost in the desert. But what hurts him more is the school critic a kid (Shea Pepe) who rips the play and performance quite thoughtfully and logically. He goes in confronting and learns actually lot to be motivated for the next year. Their scenes play so well wherein it migrates from the realm of being funny with a thoughtful advice from a kid way out of his age.

On that note of the kid’s suggestion Dana goes back to write something of his own. The “creative process” as they say title is where we laugh out loud crazily. And the resultant is the “Hamlet 2” where he is so convinced on his play and mainly his instincts. Take this; Jesus guides Hamlet through a time machine so that he can undo the tragedy of the play. Now it draws all the ammunition for offending everything which is controversial. We see little of the play but Dana is as serious about in his play and that is simultaneously funny and interesting.

Coogan gives a drama man oozing awkwardness and a smile of blush and bamboozled tangoing side by side for Dana. The film innovative all through its way just fizzes out the content and the tempo in the final act. They segment the movie with Act 1, 2 making it a spoof cum a new look for a comic film. And the best part is seeing Elisabeth Shue as herself giving a pseudo fictionalized version of her. In “Hamlet 2” she has given up acting and decided to be a nurse in the city of Tucson. And Dana excited on his high heels invites her for his class and one of the students Ivonne (Melanie Diaz) asks what she misses in acting. You can see Shue loosening up and having fun in a different part of her.

Catherine Keener as Dana’s wife is first a look up for the motivator when he is down but stumps us with a weird connection along with Dana and later coming on totally different. I am not sure whether she is the one for this role but she does it in her style. Her factor of surprising easily the audience coming out of this stay at home wife who effortlessly loosens up to a degree of likeability in unlikeable behaviours of her.

Director Andrew Fleming is a promising talent. The idea is ludicrous enough to make it to go through the slight underplayed third act. Till then Steve Coogan makes sure we see through the film and constantly provides the funny bone when needed. What I hoped was that the film elevates itself as it goes towards the showdown of the play. Instead we see glimpses of it which is fine since it is just a cover for the character of Dana. And with ample supporting cast, “Hamlet 2” is not a downer but gave more promising outlook which it does not hold well enough to sustain.