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.
The directing and the photography are very good. The use of the color, the smoke and fog and the speed of the camera are very well chosen.
Fassbender gives a very good performance, but it swallows everybody else in the movie.
What I don't like that much of this version is that Lady Macbeth almost fades away. Her character is not as important as it should be and, in the end, everything is expected and everything becomes a bit boring.
The thing about this play is that it is almost impossible to distil it down to two hours. Like most of Shakespeare's tragedies, there is immense richness in the language; in the pace the story develops; in the nuanced characterisations and in the imagery. Sure, the medium can reduce the need for much of the more descriptive narrative but it still takes time for the plotting and scheming; the menace and the power lust to percolate through. Now this isn't a terrible interpretation. Michael Fassbender is reasonable as the ambitious Thane of Glamis. He is informed by three witches after a battle that his accession to King Duncan's throne is assured, and together with his equally determined wife (Marion Cotillard) he sets about expediting that p...