Where to begin with this play? I watched this play ... I don't know when. I think in a literature class in high school. I loved it! I don't know how else to put it. I absolutely loved it. It had Richard Dreyfuss (he's in What About Bob? & Jaws) and Gary Oldman (he's in Harry Potter & Batman Begins). It was witty, it was hilarious. It was all my favorite things in one. I really don't know how to describe how much I like this movie. Because when I did finally buy it and watched it with my mom, she looked at me and said, "I don't get it." It made me laugh, because I thought everyone would love this movie. This is my guilty pleasure/no one understands why I enjoy it movie.
I thought this movie was a deep existential journey. It is the story of two characters - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Anyone who has read Hamlet should recognize their names. That is where they are from. They have very limited screen time in the play - essentially they show up out of no where, have one or two scenes, and then at the end of the play it is announced that they are dead.
This play uses that as a starting point. It is the story of Hamlet from their point of view. It is hauntingly real to me. The feelings that these men feel are ones that I feel. Where things seem to happen to them, out of their control and out of the reach of their understanding. They are victims to the ebb and flow of other people's choices. Or is it fate? There is a part of the play (well, it actually happens a couple of times), when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are trying to think back to how they got involved in this mess. They remember a man knocking on their window, on the saddle of his horse, saying that they have been royally summoned. At one point in the play, the two characters reminisce and contemplate that they must have had the choice to say no.
I don't know why I keep choosing books/topics on which it is so hard to explain. But this is one play that I love reading over and over again. The movie has some interesting additions to the plot that add to its enjoyment. In particular I love the scene when the "play" questions. So if anyone does indeed read this blog (or find it for that matter) I would HIGHLY recommend this play, and the movie. And for those who have read/watched/have some kind of knowledge about Hamlet, I think you will enjoy all the illusions to events in that play as well.
Final Score: 5 out of 5 stars
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