Riz Ahmed has carried Hamlet with him since he was a teenager, when a teacher handed him the play, and he recognized in its confusion and anger the same feelings he carried as a South Asian growing up in London. Determined to bring the role to the screen, he later teamed up with Michael Lesslie, who had adapted Macbeth with Fassbender, in an attempt to create an equally respectful version, this time situating the story in modern London with a South Asian family at its center. He also brought in Aneil Karia, with whom he had worked on the Oscar-winning short The Long Goodbye, to direct. Despite Ahmed’s lifelong bond with the material, the motivation for this version never fully convinces as to why it needed to exist. Yet the result is still a well-directed and well-performed work of great force and intensity. It functions both as an introduction for younger audiences discovering the play for the first time and as an efficient reinterpretation for those already familiar with it.
The script abridges and slightly simplifies the text, and beyond the obvious setting change, the most notable shift is its first-person focus. Every scene without Hamlet is cut, creating a more subjective narrative. Some lines are reassigned to tighten relationships, with Ophelia speaking portions of Horatio’s dialogue, a change that makes her bond with Hamlet feel more immediate.
What lifts the film beyond experiment is the cast, and Ahmed most of all. He never falls into recitation; instead, he embodies the verse with a rhythm that sometimes resembles rap, bringing a contemporary cadence to Shakespeare’s words. He is most effective at capturing Hamlet’s growing paranoia and fractured mental state, offering an intensity that recalls Branagh but filtered through a more internalized, modern sensibility. At times, his quieter delivery, even mumbling, makes certain passages more difficult to grasp, but that, too, serves the character’s unraveling mind. The supporting cast provides crucial clarity, with Morfydd Clark and Joe Alwyn adding texture, and Timothy Spall lending the weight that any Shakespeare adaptation requires.
The modern London setting does not constantly reinvent or provide new meaning, nor does it settle the question of why we need another Hamlet. Still, it yields intriguing reframings. Temples, underground spaces, and city streets become stages for familiar scenes, and the most famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be,” is delivered as Hamlet drives a car recklessly through the night. The choice will surely divide audiences, but I found it effective in externalizing his inner turbulence. The film hints at a broader corporate allegory but never follows through, focusing instead on family dynamics. That decision made me long for a sharper, looser reimagining in the style of Succession — one can almost picture Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox at war.
As it stands, this Hamlet is an interesting exercise. Ahmed’s piercing glances and embodied presence are enough to make it worthwhile, and the cast and direction give it strength. It sits comfortably alongside Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing and Kurzel’s Macbeth as an effective adaptation, not groundbreaking or definitive but a vivid reminder of the timeless force of Shakespeare’s work.
This is part of Reviews On Reels TIFF 2025 Coverage. Due to the hectic rhythm of a film festival, it may be tweaked in the future.
Still courtesy of TIFF and Mongreal Media