A banished hero of Rome allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city.
The end result is a portrait of a flailing leader that feels as pertinent now as it ever did.
More than just a nutritious slice of Shakespeare, Fiennes’ directing debut makes you crave further helpings. Watch Redgrave during awards season.
Coriolanus is not one of the Shakespeare A-list plays; it’s infrequently performed and has never been filmed for the big screen before, but Fiennes has conjured a decent production from a flawed play and it deserves to be seen.
Exciting, ironic, with assured direction, accomplished performances and the tension of topical themes, this is Shakespeare as relevant as you like it.
It all adds up to a fairly meaty and entertaining film, one that is mercifully free from the dreaded “vanity project” whiff that can sometimes attend the directorial efforts of respected actors; unlike his antagonist, Fiennes is not contemptuous of the people he serves.
Fiennes is excellent and he extracts strong supporting turns...yet there’s no escaping the weaknesses of the play.
It still feels like English homework at times, but terrific fight scenes, and a powerhouse turn from Butler, cheer things up no end.
The play needs a gritty embrace and gets it...Fiennes the director's modernistic mischiefs are right on the money.
There's a fierce critical intelligence at work in Ralph Fiennes's new adaptation.
Well done, but was it worth doing?
After a shaky start, the debutant director finds his feet, and turns this 400-year-old play into something vivid and compelling.
It may be challenging but Coriolanus emerges as an honourable, compelling attempt to make Shakespeare accessible and relevant to a contemporary audience.
Despite some good performances and clever updating of the source material, Coriolanus remains one of the Bard’s lesser-known plays for good reasons.
[Vanessa Redgrave's] scenes with Fiennes are properly chilling; for better and worse, so too is the film.
The second half needed more honing, but Fiennes has two major assets in his supporting arsenal to keep it sharp. One is Brian Cox...the other is a stonily magnificent Vanessa Redgrave.
Agonisingly incomprehensible, long-winded and mealy mouthed.
Fortunately, Coriolanus gets much better when it stops trying to impress us with its up-to-dateness, and lets us get on with watching Shakespeare.
At once visceral and intelligent, this beautifully acted, vividly staged film brings a powerful, challenging honesty to bear on class, political life and the demands we make on our leaders. It reaches out in many different directions, and in ways that Shakespeare could never have foreseen.
The film will appeal to anyone who likes Shakespeare, action, politics or Gerard Butler looking smouldering.
The cast speak the verse like a dream (I don't think I've ever seen a better performance by Redgrave), while a highly percussive score ensures that the tension doesn't let up for an instant.
Ralph Fiennes, star and director of Coriolanus--profile
On the set of Ralph Fiennes's Coriolanus: there will be blood
Coriolanus: the grump with the dragon tattoo
Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler on bringing Shakespeare bang up to date with Coriolanus
General release. Check local listings for show times.
Dundee Rep Theatre, Dundee from Friday February 17, 2012, until Thursday February 23, 2012. More info: www.dundeereptheatre.co.uk
macrobert, Stirling from Friday February 24, 2012, until Wednesday February 29, 2012. More info: www.macrobert.org
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday March 9, 2012, until Sunday March 11, 2012. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
RSS feed of Cinema reviews