Release Date – 6th February 2026, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 54 minutes, Director – Aneil Karia
Modern day telling of Hamlet, where Prince Hamlet (Riz Ahmed) seeks revenge for the murder of his father (Avijit Dutt) whilst being caught in familial ties and tensing relationships.
This modern day telling of Hamlet marks perhaps the most walkouts I’ve seen in a press screening to date. And I don’t think it’s an overall sign of the quality of the film, but more the mood of the press and industry audience nearing the closing days of the 2025 London Film Festival and not quite being in the right frame of mind to close the day on a Shakespeare adaptation that updates the setting but not the language used.
I’ve spoken before about my difficulties to properly engage with the language, but with the right performances the meaning can still be understood and conveyed and followed just as simply by a modern audience as if the language had been updated. Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand’s turns in Joel Coen’s The Tragedy Of Macbeth being perfect recent examples. Perhaps the problem is that in this modern day telling of Hamlet – featuring such sights as Wren Kitchens, The Big Yellow Self Storage Company and good old British industrial estates – single performances encapsulate a variety of styles. While good turns, the likes of Riz Ahmed – leading as Prince Hamlet in his search for revenge after his father’s (Avijit Dutt) murder) – and Timothy Spall, playing Polonius, feel as if they switch between acting for stage and screen, with modern and traditional elements of recital and performance. It’s a feeling brought up by many of the core cast members in the film.
Where the performances best succeed is in a physical sense, something which director Aneil Karia translates to the environments the film takes place in. Moving events between locations, and generally using them, to stop things from becoming stagnant. The ‘to be or not to be’ speech is a scared battle with inner thoughts as Hamlet speeds down the motorway in his car, foot pressing down further on the peddle the more he questions his life and sanity.
To pair with the physicality which stands out so much in this screen adaptation moments of silence are where the most power is found. For all the performance(s) in the film, quietness is where it finds the most success, even in scenes with plenty of dialogue there can still occasionally be found a quietness that has a strong effect. Getting across more than much of the speech. Yes, it could be said that these moments are what push the run-time, which itself at just under 2-hours is felt, but they’re the most understated and appreciated moments in a film that often finds itself struggling to properly engage a wider audience due to not quite getting past the Shakespeare ‘language barrier’.
Physicality in location and performances pairs well with quietness to create a push in this modern day telling of Hamlet, yet the slow pacing means that keeping the original language, with actors displaying a mixture of performance types, may still prove a barrier to proper engagement for some.
Just A Little Bit Random 