Ophelia (2018) Film Review: A Feminist Twist on Shakespeare’s Classic Tale

Film: Ophelia Year: 2019 Genre: Drama/Romance Rating: M Director: Claire McCarthy

Review Contains Spoilers*

As someone who isn’t a big Star Wars fan, I hadn’t seen Daisy Ridley in a leading role prior to Ophelia. What I can confidently say is that she truly shines in this reimagined feminist take on Shakespeare’s timeless play, Hamlet. The film, based on Lisa Klein’s novel of the same name, retains some of the core elements from Shakespeare’s version, including murder, an unstable Hamlet, a conniving uncle with royal ambitions, and a climactic battle. However, it presents these familiar themes from the female perspective, which turns out to be a refreshing and intriguing take on the classic tale.

The story revolves around a young Ophelia, motherless and characterized by her wilfulness and rebellious nature, making her an ideal heroine. Her father, Polonius (Dominic Mafham), serves as the King’s counselor, leaving little time for any father-daughter bonding as he constantly attends to King Hamlet (Nathaniel Parker) and Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts).

One day, Ophelia’s life takes a dramatic turn when she impresses Queen Gertrude with her wit and is appointed as one of her ladies-in-waiting. Over the years, we see Ophelia become the Queen’s favorite, leading to jealousy among the other ladies at court. But, when Hamlet (George MacKay) returns from university to discover his father’s death and his mother’s marriage to his conniving uncle, Ophelia decides to play an active role in shaping her own destiny.

At its core, the film raises profound questions about loyalty, revenge, death, and the essence of love. What interested me was the tragic love story woven into the narrative. In this adaptation, Ophelia and Hamlet’s blossoming romance drives the narrative, complicating the story and prompting Hamlet to decide between delving into his future with Ophelia or abandoning his revenge plot for the sake of rightful power.

Ophelia incorporates other elements of genres we tend to love, including borrowing things from the gothic. There are sleeping potions, twins, subtle witches, and suspected ghosts wandering castles at night. This seems like a departure from Shakespeare’s play but also traversing on newer territory. It adds layers of unease and suspense at times and allows the film to fit in the vein of others like Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth (2015) or Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999).

The cinematography by Dan Baker deserves special mention for its exquisite aesthetics. Each frame in Ophelia is visually captivating and vibrant. Which tends to mean reminiscent of historical paintings found in Dutch art museums. As for one of the more favorable changes, Ophelia’s dialogue avoids Shakespearian language, but that doesn’t detract from the film’s authenticity. The costumes exude Tudoresque elegance, further enhancing the medieval period setting that would make Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of Hamlet (1996) (another beautifully done film) scratch its head for reasons why they didn’t think of dressing their actors like that.

I have to say that the performances of Clive Owen and Naomi Watts were my personal favourites. They add depth and nuance to their characters beyond what the script by Semi Chellas would suggest. Clive Owen brings a dominating presence to Claudius, his aggression matched only by his passion for power. Naomi Watts has a tall order in portraying two characters convincingly. One of them is Queen Gertrude. Luckily, in Watts’ hands, Gertrude is self-serving but caring, attentive to her son but distracted by her lover, and has hopelessly fallen for the wrong man.

Daisy Ridley’s portrayal of Ophelia tracks the transformation of a shy and reserved lady-in-waiting to an independent woman who must decide between her destiny and supporting the man she loves as he seeks to avenge his fallen father.

If there are any bad things to say it’s mainly two things. King Hamlet’s character is severely underdeveloped. He is silent for most of the film, only standing in the background for a while until his death, which seems like a disservice to Nathaniel Parker. Young Hamlet, although we see him transforming behind Ophelia’s narrative from a rebellious, free spirit to a vengeful would-be king, never really develops above his adolescent games. If we’re not careful, we may just forget these characters altogether.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed that this one offers an interesting feminist twist on Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet, giving Ophelia agency and purpose just on the fringes of the original that sheds light on an otherwise side character.

If you enjoyed this, please be sure to check out some of my other film reviews.