Goold's Macbeth

I enjoyed Goold’s “Macbeth” tremendously but I felt that there were two distinct forces working within the film. The setting of the story and the costume of the characters where distinctly modern but the dialogue and the narrative the characters wove was traditional Macbeth. I think that an adaption must fully commit to changing the original work or else resign itself to recreation. Patrick Stewart and Lady Macbeth’s character both delivered exceptional performances and managed to make each character distinctively their own but the script keeps them tightly constrained. If Goold had decided to rework the script to more closely match his overall story idea, he may have been able to create a more expressive and clear story.

The dissonance between the two competing story elements does create interesting contrasts but it takes away one of the more powerful aspects of adaption because of the original dialogue. Adaptations are able to distinguish themselves from their source material often because of the new elements and themes they introduce, some of them drastic departures from the original. Goold’s adaptation of Macbeth, while certainly unique in appearance and style, cannot claim to introduce anything drastically unfamiliar to the persona of Macbeth. He is still the tragically ambitious arrogant antihero he has always been. The story does not fail because safely sticks to the classic story but we can only wonder what the product of a little risk could have been with such talented cast and unique styling.