THIS WINTER'S HOTTEST HAND

'Richard III'

Richard was as over the top as
he
plays him. The bloodthirsty
o would have the
to set king seems more cartoon than
chutzpah
c
Shakespeare's human.
Richard III's language begins
Richard III in the
to
sound natural as the setting
decadent opulence of pre-war Eu-
rope in the 1930s while staying seems increasingly anomalous;
faithful to the original text? The for example, the prime minister,
whip-like Ian McKellen, who co- a chap in an argyle sweater, is
wrote the screenplay and put hanged; Earl Rivers is impaled,
and the king's own son is smoth-
himself in the starring role.
Despite the initial linguistic ered to death, all without the no-
disorientation this antic movie tice of the press or justice system.
The only weakness in this film
may cause to the viewer, it works
most of the time. Sir McKellen is its failure to stay true to the
times in which it's set; even in
(Scandal) plays the lead
the '30s, royal watchers
character, a pernicious
abounded and newspa-
MOVIES
hunchback who suffers a
pers reported on palace
bout of conscience but
goings-on.
once in his bloody rise to the
In the final battle in which
throne of England.
The story is a typical Shake- Richmond leads forces against
spearean yarn of royal bloodlet- Richard with firepower, the wily
ting that pits cousins, brothers king cries, "A horse! A horse! My
and in-laws against each other. kingdom for a horse!" as if he
It tells of the rise of Edward, knows not which century hath
whose brother Richard stages a borne him. 4i
coup that involves tanks and ma-
—Julie Edgar
chine guns, violently
overthrowing the king
to make way for Ed-
ward's ascension. But
it is the chain-smoking,
kinetic Richard who
thirsts for the throne
and, one by one, he rids
the kingdom of any
subjects loyal to his
brother Edward, all the
while telling us in acer-
bic asides of his mur-
derous plans.
The cast is mostly
English, but a few
American actors inex-
plicably show up, like
Annette Bening as
King Edward's wife,
Queen Elizabeth, and
Robert Downey Jr. as
her brother, Earl
Rivers. McKellen pre-
serves the dark tenor
of Shakespeare's play, Annette Bening is the reigning Queen Elizabeth,
but it is arguable whose brother-in-law Richard has set his sights on
whether the original the throne.

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Sir Ian McKellen stars as Richard, a charismatic malcontent and England's most
ruthless monarch, in a 1930s version of Shakespeare's Richard 111.

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