DAVID BIANCULLI

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KING LEAR
September 28, 2018  | By David Bianculli

Amazon Prime Video, 3:00 a.m. ET

 

MOVIE PREMIERE: Anthony Hopkins simmers, sizzles and burns in the title role of this new made-for-TV adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic drama. Richard Eyre both directs and edits it, cutting out sometimes hefty portions while keeping the main story – about an aging ruler and the unfairly different treatment of his daughters – in the forefront at all times. Eyre’s Lear is set in present-day London, which is a sharp and sometimes subtly resonant move: Lear leads his country, and his household, as a man both susceptible to and demanding of flattery, and a man capable of proclaiming new policies and viewpoints instantly and without warning. Emma Thompson, as Lear’s daughter Goneril, says as much with her stylish fashions as with her furtive glances. Emily Watson’s Regan is more openly manipulative and self-centered – and youngest daughter Cordelia, played tenderly by Florence Pugh, refuses to play the flattery game, and incurs her father’s wrath as a result. Other co-stars include Jim Broadbent and Downton Abbey veteran Jim Carter, and they and the modern setting lend this new version a commendable depth and energy. There’s something about King Lear with a present-day map, dividing up his kingdom by drawing on the map with a Sharpie…

 
 
 
 
 
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