I have to second your Shakespeare fatigue. We both thought last night’s screening of Hamlet 2 might give us fresh legs, but, disappointingly that wasn’t the case. I didn’t hate it like you did – it was just another indie comedy that regurgitated elements, from gross-out to twee to self-referential, that I’d already seen in two-dozen other indie comedies – but Steve Coogan, no matter how uneven his character, still manages to make me laugh more often than not. Honestly, the most interesting thing about the film – which is about a failed actor/high school drama coach who writes a sequel to Hamlet, despite, as one character points out, the fact that almost everyone is dead at the end of Hamlet 1 – was the high school production itself and not the piffling plot about Coogan’s sad-sack drama coach or the quasi-inspirational story of inspiring teens to make art. It’s a great idea — let’s see, everybody’s dead, so where do we go next?! — but Hamlet 2‘s primary interest is in Coogan’s roller-blading pratfalls. Ah well…
This article appears in August 22 • 2008.
