ophelia 2019 movie reviews

Ophelia is a tragic figure in a tragic play. First loved, then spurned by Hamlet, she goes mad and drowns in the river, though we do not know whether by accident or intention. In the play, Hamlet’s mother Gertrude describes Ophelia’s death as though she saw it herself, the girl “incapable of her own distress,” singing in the water “Till that her garments, heavy with their drink/Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay/To muddy death.” The image of the doomed girl was popular with the pre-Raphaelite, most notably the painting by John Millais, showing her lovely but bedraggled in the water.

That is how Claire McCarthy ’s “Ophelia” begins, the girl drowned in the river. But in this version, adapted by Semi Chellas (“ American Woman ” and the upcoming reboot of “Charlie’s Angels”) from a novel by Lisa Klein , we hear from Ophelia herself that this time we are going to see her side of the story. In this version, she is not the helpless girl driven to madness and likely suicide by a lover’s rejection. Played by “ Star Wars ” heroine Daisy Ridley , she has courage, intelligence, integrity, and agency. In this story, neither she nor the Danish prince she loves waste time worrying about whether to be or not to be. She is fully alive in every moment and ready to act to protect herself or those she loves.

In Shakespeare’s plays, whether comedies, romances, or tragedies, characters constantly jab at each other verbally, flipping words like tiddlywinks, with multiple layers of meaning. An Elizabethan wit could take a word, toss it up into the air and make it do a triple gainer on the way back down. “Ophelia” is filled with clever wordplay matched by an equally clever perspective flip of one of the central texts of Western literature.

As a young girl Ophelia is first mistaken for a boy because her widowed father Polonius ( Dominic Mafham ) is not able to give her the care she needs. When she speaks up fearlessly to Gertrude ( Naomi Watts ), turning the queen’s “alas” into “a lass,” she is taken on as a lady in waiting, washed, corseted, and taught the rules of courtly behavior. But she never loses her independent spirit, which makes her a favorite of the queen – at first. When Hamlet returns to find that his father is dead and his uncle has claimed the throne, she becomes a threat, especially when she and Hamlet are aligned. As in Shakespeare’s plays, wit here is more than jokes; it is a sign of an independence of thinking, a willingness to speak truth, even to power, even at great risk. It is also an ability to strategize and undermine that may be more powerful, even, than a witch’s potion.

There are parallels, and mirrored dualities throughout, and it is not only Ophelia whose character is made more vivid and complex. Scholars are still arguing about what Shakespeare’s Gertrude knew and how complicit she was in the murder of her husband before she married his brother. Here we see Gertrude as lonely and vain, trying desperately to hold on to her youth, whether through a witch’s potion or the attention of her husband’s brother Claudius ( Clive Owen ). Watts also plays another character, whose story intersects and echoes her own. Hamlet himself (George McKay) is in this version more direct and assured. Claudius is even more duplicitous.

Ridley brings the same verve and sincerity to Ophelia that she does to Rey in “Star Wars,” and Watts shows us Gertrude’s desperation and vanity. The story is made more vivid through with settings and costumes that are grand and beautiful but very much in service to the story, sound design that literally echoes the cavernous chill of the castle contrasted with the warmth of the natural world outdoors, and dynamic camera work to underscore the shifting points of view.

In 1966, Tom Stoppard ’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” presented “Hamlet” from the perspective of two minor characters who die early and offstage. It was revolutionary in concept, remixing the themes of power, revenge, and agency in a classic by focusing on minor figures, with themes of powerlessness and stasis. These characters barely understood what was happening around them and were killed off only to prevent them from carrying out orders to kill the title character. It was not the first remix of a classic but a significant work in conversation with “Hamlet” (and with other works, like “Waiting for Godot”) and was likely in part an inspiration for other attempts to tell established stories from the perspective of minor characters, from “ A Chorus Line ” to “The Lion King 1 ½” (which is surprisingly good).  

And now we have “Ophelia,” the story of the doomed Prince of Denmark, or rather, in this version, it is her story, and it is Hamlet who is the supporting character. And supporting he is, the famous imprecation “Get thee to a nunnery,” usually presented as contemptuous in the original, here is an effort to keep Ophelia safe from the treachery of the castle, part of a mutually agreed upon plan that owes something to “Romeo and Juliet” as well as its original source. This is one of many well-known lines of dialogue that take on new meanings here, as additional characters and scenes blend in so believably we can imagine them going on in rooms adjacent to the action we all remember. We see Hamlet bring in performers to reenact the murder of his father and the production here is a genuine work of art so eye-catching we may lose sight (literally) of its purpose, to catch the reactions of Claudius and Gertrude. Just as that play catches the conscience of the king, the richness of Shakespeare’s original provides the basis for a vividly imagined adjunct that provides additional insight into the classic and to our own ability to use art to illuminate the modern world.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

• Daisy Ridley as Ophelia
• Naomi Watts as Gertrude / Mechtild
• George MacKay as Hamlet
• Clive Owen as Claudius
• Tom Felton as Laertes
• Sebastian de Souza as Edmund
• Devon Terrell as Horatio
• Daisy Head as Cristiana
• Dominic Mafham as Polonius
• Claire McCarthy

Cinematographer

• Denson Baker

Writer (novel)

• Luke Dunkley
• Semi Chellas
• Steven Price

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Ophelia : The Female Gaze Is Strong in This One

Ophelia is the ultimate female take-back-the-narrative movie. The novelist Lisa Klein, and now the screenwriter Semi Chellas and director Claire McCarthy, have taken the character with arguably the least agency of any in classical theater and given her control over her own destiny — to the point where they have to twist the source, Hamlet , into the kinds of knots you’d find in silly heist movies. Ophelia is pretty silly, too, but give its makers points for chutzpah.

To refresh your memory: In Hamlet, the teenage Ophelia is bullied and bounced around by three men: her priss-pot father, Polonius; the bloated King Claudius; and her boyfriend, the Danish prince himself. With her father inadvertently skewered and her boyfriend (her father’s killer) en route to England, Ophelia wanders into the court having plainly lost her marbles, does a mad scene for the ages, and goes off and throws herself into a stream. John Everett Millais immortalized her floating corpse in a famous painting that inspired Laurence Olivier’s final shot of her in his Oscar-winning film adaptation of Hamlet. Ophelia actually begins with another reproduction of Millais’s painting — except that now Ophelia, played by the first female Jedi, says in voice-over, “It’s high time I should tell you my story myself.” Take that, you Stratford prat.

Ophelia goes on to play a kind of footsie with Hamlet. In every instance in which Shakespeare’s character is helpless and indecisive, McCarthy and Chellas give us a young woman ( Daisy Ridley ) who knows her own mind better than Hamlet knows his. When this Ophelia is ordered to pry info from Hamlet (George MacKay) while Claudius (Clive Owen) and Polonius hide behind a balustrade, our heroine declaims variations of Shakespeare’s lines while whispering to Hamlet that he’s being watched. Hamlet’s command that she go to a nunnery is now for her protection, given that he’s about to commit regicide. Ophelia stays, of course. Danger is her middle name.

Chellas doesn’t borrow lines from Shakespeare, as in the wittiest of all Shakespearean stunts, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ; she revises and repurposes them. But she has concocted some respectable poetic banter — Shakespeare Lite. And sometimes she goes in the opposite direction, making the characters’ plain–spokenness downright cheeky. Polonius (Dominic Mafham) tells Laertes (Tom Felton), “Don’t borrow any money or lend it, and above all be true to yourself.” Ouch. Later, Hamlet and Ophelia have a bit of romantic dialogue: “Call me by my name.” “Hamlet.” “Ophelia.” It ain’t the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet , but the mundanity is the joke. This Hamlet is self-consciously poetic and utterly ineffectual. He regularly cocks things up while complaining that his mother is “like all women — fickle, frail.” Ophelia registers this with dismay. Not all women, you Danish prat.

The female gaze is strong in this one. Tasked to read to Gertrude (Naomi Watts) at bedtime, Ophelia discovers that the queen’s text isn’t religious but medieval soft-core porn. She and Gertrude have a good giggle. It seems that Hamlet’s father, Hamlet Sr., isn’t exactly a tiger in the sack, so why shouldn’t Gertrude and Claudius have a fling? It’s not as if she thought he’d turn around and poison his own brother! (Really, though, she should have expected it. Owen’s Claudius, with his lank, black locks, is halfway to Richard III .)

Ridley makes a fine, modern heroine, but it’s Watts who goes big and waltzes away with the movie. She actually plays two roles: Gertrude and Gertrude’s hitherto unknown twin sister, a witch. At various junctures, Ophelia descends to the witch’s subterranean lair to obtain stimulating “potions” for her queen. It seems that this bitter hellion is trying to turn her royal sister into a medieval cokehead. As Gertrude, Watts flies into rages so towering that Steven Price’s music has to compete to be heard. It’s a nutty, bombastic score, but anything more modest would have gotten lost in the histrionics.

To be clear, I have no problem with bold literary fiddle-di-dees like Ophelia. No masterpiece is set in stone, and Shakespeare didn’t invent the story anyway. (Some scholars — notably Harold Bloom — think the text we know today was Shakespeare’s rewrite of his own early, now-lost revenge melodrama, which Bloom calls the “Ur- Hamlet .”) My issue is that Ophelia , for all its juice, is laborious — a joke that goes on too long — and that the original actually does a better job of inspiring female revolt. This, Shakespeare says, is what happens to an innocent young woman in a world in which men (in conflict with one another) make all the choices for her — mansplaining leading literally to tragedy. But I admit that the original is terribly depressing and that it’s fun to think of women taking up arms against not just kings but the whole Western canon. If nothing else, it makes people like Harold Bloom — and me — uncomfortable.

*A version of this article appears in the July 8, 2019, issue of  New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!

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‘Ophelia’ Review: Out of the Shadows (and Into the Weeds )

In this revisionist take, Shakespeare’s tragic heroine takes matters, and fate, into her own hands.

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By Manohla Dargis

Soon after “Ophelia” opens , the title character is floating face up in a river. The image evokes John Everett Millais’s 1850s painting that shows a supine Ophelia soon after she has drowned. Her pale palms are turned up, flowers spilling out of one hand. Her eyes are open, her lips prettily parted, as if she had received the gentlest of surprises. It’s quite a vision of Eros and Thanatos in one beautiful necrophiliac package.

“Ophelia” seeks to revamp the image of its title heroine (Daisy Ridley) as a tragic, largely passive casualty, one who is as much a victim of Shakespeare’s era as of his peerless imagination. It’s an interesting exercise and, for the most part, a passably diverting one. The movie sounds and looks good ( despite the suboptimal digital resolution), though it is also too pretty, with lush woods, attractive gowns, a stately castle and misty lakes. It also isn’t remotely Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” despite the characters, the Danish setting and the self-conscious attempt to suggest his language.

This is instead Ophelia as a 21st-century heroine, who after a smudge-faced childhood running wild in her king’s castle — and being excluded from studying with the boys — grows into a woman with desires, ambitions and a pronounced rebellious streak. Yet like Shakespeare’s version, this Ophelia has serious issues, including love trouble with the still-brooding Hamlet (a good, underused George MacKay). Now, though, she has richer, more familial ties to Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts) and an uneasy relationship with Gertrude’s look-alike (Watts), a witchy forest dweller who seems to have wandered in from “Macbeth.” (The script by Semi Chellas is based on Lisa Klein’s Y.A. novel.)

The director Claire McCarthy sets an energetic pace that rarely eases, as if taking her cue from the introduction of Ophelia (Mia Quiney) when she was one of the castle’s child ruffians. Once Gertrude takes Ophelia under her wing, making the motherless girl her charge, the movie retains a clip that could use some slowing. A great deal happens in “Hamlet” (“carnal, bloody and unnatural acts,” as Horatio says); just as much in “Ophelia” but not always gracefully. “You may think you know my story,” she says in the movie, which is an agreeably optimistic claim about contemporary readership. At times, though, all the bustling to and fro feels strained, superfluous.

Best known for playing a warrior in the most recent cycle of “Star Wars” movies, Ridley is an attractive, physically confident performer who has enough of that certain alchemical something — a persona that lights up the frame, an auric presence — that she can both hold the screen and your attention. Her resemblance to Keira Knightley, particularly around the jawline, has always been uncanny. In “Ophelia,” though, with its flowing hair and gowns, the resemblance is at times also awkwardly distracting because it reminds you how smoothly Knightley can slip into a period role. Ridley by contrast often seems ill at ease, particularly when called on to express interiority.

This scarcely seems Ridley’s fault and presumably neither is Ophelia’s habit of speaking in hushed Malickian tones. Even Clive Owen has a rough time delivering the persuasive goods, and the most notable aspect of his performance as Claudius, alas, is the character’s tragic hair. Other familiar critical characters scarcely register, including the king (Nathaniel Parker), who barely speaks (alive or otherwise) and whose murder of course helps instigate the play’s “accidental judgments, casual slaughters.” His diminished presence creates a dramatic problem that this movie never manages to solve, even despite Watts’s predictably lively, doubly troubled turn.

Rated PG-13 for something rotten. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes.

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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Film Review: "Ophelia"

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Movie Reviews

'ophelia' sees the world differently than shakespeare's prince hamlet.

Bob Mondello

Claire McCarthy's new film Ophelia takes the Bard's advice to "hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature," and finds a fresh angle on the story Shakespeare called Hamlet.

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Daisy Ridley fuels Shakespeare’s iconic heroine with zip in a reimagining of ‘Hamlet’ that plays a bit too safe.

Time Out says

Shakespeare’s heroine Ophelia is known for two things: madness and death. Her drowned body floating in the water shrouded by flowers and hair in the John Millais painting at Tate Britain is the image that probably sticks in your mind. From this picture, director Claire McCarthy launches her revision of ‘Hamlet’, based on Lisa Klein’s 2006 novel, baiting us with a familiar Ophelia before revealing a headstrong young woman more akin to Rey from ‘Star Wars’ than the Bard’s passive victim of yore. And guess what? It’s Daisy Ridley playing the ill-fated noblewoman, furthering the parallel by injecting plenty of her trademark tomboy energy into Ophelia’s position as lady-in-waiting to Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts). She is a bustling, spirited force, stomping from courtly duties to covert dates with Hamlet (George MacKay); from lessons with a forest-dwelling herbalist Mechtild (Watts again) to family powwows with brother Laertes (Tom Felton) and father Polonius (Dominic Mafham). Performances are solid across the board, with the cast wise to the fact that Shakespearean language requires no decoration.

There is sport to be had in ringing the revisions, which include: a timeline that begins before Claudius (Clive Owen) poisons Hamlet’s father (the starting point of the play); the invention of Mechtild; and the insertion of Ophelia into most plot mechanics. It’s a shame that these bold story changes are the height of the film’s ambitions. There is a dutiful conservatism to the way it plods along, relying a bit too heavily on its unique hook – and heroine – to put the spring in its step.

Release Details

• Release date: Friday 22 November 2019
• Duration: 107 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Claire McCarthy
• Screenwriter: Semi Chellas
• Daisy Ridley
• Naomi Watts

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Common Sense Media Review

Hamlet gets a feminist update, but violence stays the same.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Ophelia is a revisionist take on Hamlet's love interest -- presenting her as much more independent and wise-minded than she appears in Shakespeare's classic play. Written and directed by women (and starring Star Wars ' Daisy Ridley in the title role), the film moves through…

Why Age 14+?

Weapons like swords and daggers are used frequently to compete, to threaten, to

Sensuality/partial nudity during a scene in which newlyweds consummate their mar

Adults drink wine during a party. A character is dependent on her "tonic" every

"Whore" is used.

Any Positive Content?

As presented here, Ophelia is smart, witty, resourceful, discreet, and talented

There's always more to a woman's story than meets the eye -- especially if her s

Violence & Scariness

Weapons like swords and daggers are used frequently to compete, to threaten, to wound/kill. A battle depicts stabbing, punching, killing, leaving dead bodies and blood. Several attempted sexual assaults. An angry mob carrying torches is seen from a distance. Characters drink poison. One dies by suicide. Angry threats, arguments.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Sensuality/partial nudity during a scene in which newlyweds consummate their marriage. A woman's back is exposed when she removes her dress. Characters who are having an affair kiss. A woman speaks of an ex who abandoned her when she became pregnant. Women read aloud the 14th-century equivalent of a trashy romance novel.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink wine during a party. A character is dependent on her "tonic" every night, which seems to be a type of drug. A poison or drug is consumed as a technique to escape capture.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

As presented here, Ophelia is smart, witty, resourceful, discreet, and talented at navigating the political landscape while staying true to herself and her values. She demonstrates courage, integrity. Other characters are a mix of noble/good intentions, weakness, outright evil.

Positive Messages

There's always more to a woman's story than meets the eye -- especially if her story is one that's been told by a man. To get a full understanding of a story, flip the perspective.

Parents need to know that Ophelia is a revisionist take on Hamlet's love interest -- presenting her as much more independent and wise-minded than she appears in Shakespeare's classic play. Written and directed by women (and starring Star Wars ' Daisy Ridley in the title role), the film moves through all the beats of Hamlet from Ophelia's point of view. And so, just like the play, there are poisonings, swordfights, stabbings, tense confrontations, deaths, a drowning, and a bloody battle scene. A sensual lovemaking scene between a married couple reveals a woman's bare back. Wine and "tonic" are consumed; the latter is implied to be an illicit substance. While Hamlet is focused on revenge, power, and murder, this story centers on romance, social class, and the difficulties of maintaining your position in court while those who rule the kingdom are having personal issues. On that note, there's also more exploration of Queen Gertrude's ( Naomi Watts ) struggles and backstory here than in the original play. For teens familiar with the source material, the film is a gratifying, female-empowerment flip to required reading. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (4)
• Kids say (3)

Based on 4 parent reviews

Superbly Performaned

A welcome addition to the hamlet canon, what's the story.

This film reimagines William Shakespeare's Hamlet with OPHELIA as the main character. Ophelia ( Daisy Ridley ) is a girl of common birth whose intelligence and moxie charms Denmark's Queen Gertrude ( Naomi Watts ). As the queen's favored lady-in-waiting, Ophelia keeps the secrets that are held within the walls of Elsinore Castle -- including her own forbidden relationship with Prince Hamlet ( George MacKay ). When the kingdom experiences a sudden change in leadership, Ophelia realizes she may have to choose between true love and her own survival.

Is It Any Good?

Director Claire McCarthy gives Shakespeare's most misunderstood and debated character the story she deserves. Ophelia's role in Hamlet has created more questions than answers over the centuries: She's educated, but what is her role at the castle? Is Hamlet in love with her, or is he stringing her along? How does she go from a place of self-assurance to a point where she's harassed and bullied by her brother, her father, her lover, and his family in a way that seems to spark madness? Maybe in the year 1600, it all made sense to audiences, but for modern teens reading Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Ophelia's behavior is confusing. The only character who's equally enigmatic is Queen Gertrude.

McCarthy and writer Semi Chellas delightfully unravel both women's stories with a take that's redeeming and satisfying and makes a heck of a lot of sense. Just as we suspected, Ophelia is no dummy and definitely nobody's fool. She's got a spark that modern audiences can feel, and it's clear why Hamlet loves her -- and, for that matter, Gertrude. Interactions among the 14th-century courtiers can be as catty and cutthroat as high school, and Ophelia's MO of "observe, keep mum, and learn how to dodge and weave" is a lesson that might resonate with young audiences. Ophelia is far from Shakespeare canon, but it certainly is a step in empowering young women to know that even if history's greatest playwright saw women as throwaway characters, there's definitely more to the story.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why the filmmakers felt it was important to tell Ophelia's story from her perspective. How is her personality different here than in Hamlet? How do you feel about a modern writer iterating on Shakespeare's intent?

Two men came up with the idea for this film but hired a female writer and director to tell the story. Do you think it's important for women to tell women's stories? Do you think a man can tell a woman's story as authentically as a woman, or does it matter? What do you think about female filmmakers making a movie about men?

How does Ophelia demonstrate courage and integrity ? How do those traits help her? What other character strengths does she embody?

Other than the female focus, what other changes did you notice in this take on Hamlet ? Are there any other classics you think could use an update to reflect a more modern way of thinking?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 28, 2019
• On DVD or streaming : November 5, 2019
• Cast : Daisy Ridley , Naomi Watts , Clive Owen
• Director : Claire McCarthy
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors
• Studio : IFC Films
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Book Characters
• Character Strengths : Courage , Integrity
• Run time : 114 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : a scene of violence/bloody images, some sensuality, and thematic elements
• Last updated : July 19, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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What to watch next.

Hamlet (1996)

Reviving Ophelia

Romeo and Juliet

Hamlet (1991)

William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice

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Ophelia Review

22 Nov 2019

Bowing at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2018, Claire McCarthy’s Ophelia is a better film than the long time delay suggests. Based on Lisa Klein’s 2006 YA novel, it takes the events of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and filters them through the eyes of Ophelia ( Ridley ). It’s a fun, diverting take, but lacks the depths and courage of its convictions to really invigorate the nifty premise.

It sets its stall out in a Sunset Boulevard style as a dead Ophelia, lying in a river surrounded by petals, intones in voiceover, “It is high time I shall tell you my story myself.” We pick up her story six years before Shakespeare. Ophelia is an uncourtly tomboy with a thirst for knowledge (she’s locked out of the library) who grows up to be the favoured lady-in-waiting of Queen Gertrude ( Watts ), much to the chagrin of the other mean-girls-in-waiting. Gertrude gets Ophelia to read saucy stories in bed and sends her to an apothecary (bizarrely also played by Watts) in the woods for an anti-ageing potion that would fly off the shelf at Boots.

Part of the fun of Ophelia is seeing where it intersects and breaks with the Bard. There’s a beautifully realised take on the play-within-a-play that catches out Claudius ( Owen ) and some interesting variations on classic lines: “Get thee to a nunnery” is less in anger here and more as a means to get Ophelia to safety. Elsewhere, seemingly lacking confidence in the dramatic strengths of, er, Hamlet , Semi Chellas’ script starts pilfering other Shakespeare plays; the poison plot line of Romeo And Juliet , the cross-dressing of Twelfth Night , even Watts’ witch in the woods smacks of Macbeth .

Daisy Ridley infuses Ophelia with maximum Rey-ness to the extent it wouldn’t surprise you to see BB-8 rolling around Elsinore.

But there are some interesting additions too. Ophelia’s romance with Hamlet ( MacKay ) is fresh and engaging: the pair meet cute at a lake, dance in slow mo at a masked ball and then carry out a clandestine romance among the ramparts. And, also adding something new to the mix, there can be very few RSC productions that see Ophelia deliver a swift kick in the nuts.

The cast are strong across the board; Watts is a vain, shallow Queen who would have felt at home in Death Becomes Her , MacKay’s Hamlet does away with the dithering — there is no “To be or not to be”-ing here — to be a more straightforward, appealing lead and Owen, sporting mad hair, is hissable as the man who shouldn’t be king. Sporting a long red-y-brown wig, Ridley infuses Ophelia with maximum Rey-ness (strength, smarts, no surname) to the extent it wouldn’t surprise you to see BB-8 rolling around Elsinore. But she also finds enough vulnerability to make the doomed romance work, and creates strong chemistry with Watts.

McCarthy’s filmmaking is consistently impressive, particularly in the last reel action sequences. But the film is based on such a strong premise, you are left with the feeling it didn’t do enough to make it fly. As it progresses, it reneges on the idea of telling Ophelia’s story, side-lining her for the broader story of court/family politics. It course-corrects at the very end, but a lot of the strong work of the first half feels like it has been for nothing.

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Movie magic and thrilling female empowerment happen when Hamlet is told from the female perspective in Ophelia – a mostly brilliant re-imagining of Shakespeare’s tragic tale.

Ophelia Review

“You may think you know my story…”

“You may think you know my story,” Ophelia says at the start of the movie. What then follows is an entertaining, romantic epic that is part Romeo and Juliet , part Ever After , part YA romance, and part Arthurian or Shakespearean tragedy with a feminist slant.

Based on the young adult retelling by Lisa Klein, director Claire McCarthy tells a new version of Ophelia. In this re-imagining, expect less madness and hysteria and instead more feminist triumph that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Ophelia, a young tomboy like Danielle in Ever After , catches the interest of Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts) and is then raised as one of her ladies-in-waiting. As Ophelia grows into a young woman (played by Daisy Ridley from Star Wars ), she captures the interest of Prince Hamlet (George MacKay).

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Soon, a forbidden star-crossed romance develops between the two as political corruption, war, and madness envelop the kingdom. When the King is murdered, the familiar tragic story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet unfolds – but in new intriguing ways.

I don’t want to give much away in my review of Ophelia , but in a fascinating twist, Naomi Watts plays dual roles as sisters (maybe even twin sisters). One, the queen, and the other an accused witch. It’s perhaps the most exciting change to the story.

Besides Daisy Ridley and Naomi Watts, the all-star cast also includes Clive Owen as the wicked Claudius, George Mackay as the brooding Hamlet, Nathaniel Parker as the King, Tom Felton as Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, Dominic Mafham as Polonius, and Devon Terrell as Horatio.

Everyone fits their parts incredibly well – though Parker as the King is underused and only briefly onscreen. And while Ridley and Watts steal the movie with their standout performances, Devon Terrell as Horatio sneaks in to let everyone know he’s got charisma to spare. He’s a young star to put on your radar.

You may watch this historical romance asking yourself: Hamlet who?

Still, Naomi Watts arguably brings the most to the acting table, especially during the film’s climax. Without giving away spoilers, both of her characters give the ultimate cathartic moments during the violent tragic finale.

You’ll have to watch to see just how her dual characters make this movie a must-see.

The Production

Right from the start, the film’s visual style matches the look and feel of the famous 19th-century Ophelia painting by John Everett Millais. Steeped in Romanticism and using the Pre-Raphaelite art form as an influence, the look of the film is impressive and beautiful to watch – though it could use a little more brightness. The art and set design, as well as the cinematography, all improve the quality of this indie film.

The costumes are also exquisite – though I’m not an expert in historical accuracy. Still, the colors and design are impressive and vivid.

On top of the production quality, the script is excellent (though a bit underdeveloped in parts), and Claire McCarthy’s vision as a director impresses. I’d like to see more films from her.

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The best aspect of the Ophelia movie, however, is the musical score by Steven Price. It’s one of the finest soundtracks and scores I’ve heard in a while. Now, the chances of receiving Academy Award attention are slim to none, but truly, this musical score deserves a nomination.

From the original ethereal music to the storytelling quality to the Hamlet-inspired lyrics, I was impressed. The film editors also deserve credit as the unique musical score is utilized as if the movie is a music video rather than a film. The final climax was edited to the emotional music perfectly.

Still, there are a few flaws. The madness could have been better developed in the film, for example. While Ophelia and Hamlet fake their madness, it’s not completely convincing. And Horatio’s character needed further exploration, as one wondered throughout if he had unrequited feelings for Ophelia.

At times, the period dialogue also felt a little too modern as if the screenwriter was stuck somewhere between Shakespeare and contemporary YA romance. That said, most of the time the dialogue was fine and it wasn’t unnatural or stilted.

Overall Review of Ophelia

Overall, Ophelia is a first-rate historical romance with a unique twist on a familiar story. The changes work surprisingly well. And while this is an imperfect film, it’s perfectly entertaining. So, if you enjoy fairy-tale retellings or movies with female empowerment, then this is the movie to watch.

Where to Watch: You can currently (at the time of this review) watch Ophelia in select theaters. The movie is also available to rent On Demand.

Content Note: PG-13 for sensuality, sexual harassment, and violence.

What are your thoughts on this new retelling of Hamlet ? Do you plan to watch Ophelia ? Have you already seen it? Do you agree with my Ophelia review? Let me know your thoughts.

Poster for Ophelia © IFC Films.

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Amber works as a writer and digital publisher full-time and fell in love with stories and imagination at an early age. She has a Humanities and Film Degree from BYU, co-created The Silver Petticoat Review, contributed as a writer to various magazines, and has an MS in Publishing from Pace University, where she received the Publishing Award of Excellence and wrote her thesis on transmedia, Jane Austen, and the romance genre. Her ultimate dreams are publishing books, writing and producing movies, traveling around the world, and forming a creative village of talented storytellers trying to change the world through art.

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‘ophelia’: film review | sundance 2018.

Daisy Ridley and Naomi Watts star in 'Ophelia,' a reshaping of 'Hamlet' in which the prince’s lady love takes center stage.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Elsinore is a less gloomy place with women in the foreground in Ophelia , an engaging reshaping of Hamlet in which the prince’s lady love takes center stage. Based on Lisa Klein’s well-received 2006 young adult novel, this vigorous, colorful and clever melodrama smartly rethinks both the play and the character, making her a far more proactive figure than Shakespeare did in addition to entirely reimagining her fate. 

With Star Wars leading lady Daisy Ridley playing the title character and dialogue more accessible to a general public than the Bard’s tends to be, this handsome film could score reasonably well with a young and predominantly female audience.

Although the pic will mean more to viewers who know the play than to newcomers, a familiarity with the story is in no way a prerequisite for understanding or enjoying a work so ripe with intrigue, secrets, murder and no end of illicit goings-on. Certainly there’s no fuss or formality in the way Australian director Claire McCarthy (no known relation!) has approached the material, which is, to be sure, serious, but shot through with a youthful verve and keen attention to youthful physical beauty that at moments reminds of Franco Zeffirelli’s highly successful 1968 Romeo and Juliet.

“You may think you know my story,” Ophelia states at the outset, when 15-year-old Prince Hamlet is about for depart school in Wittenberg, but adds, “I was always a willful girl.” Unlike most young females there and then, she’s able to read, a talent that attracts the favor of Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts), who has her recite some racy material to her upon retiring to bed. Favorably impressed with the girl’s qualities, she eventually makes her one of her ladies-in-waiting. Gertrude also becomes increasingly taken with certain special herbs, another matter Ophelia is able to help her with.

With the death of Hamlet’s father, the king, the young man (George MacKay) returns with a reasonable expectation of taking his place on the throne. But Hamlet’s uncle Claudius (a wild-haired Clive Owen) has beat him to it, launching all manner of speculation and suspicion about the late monarch’s demise.

But palace intrigue mostly remains secondary to what Ophelia is up to. She’s not portrayed as an unduly modern girl, exactly, or unrealistically as some kind of proto-feminist. But she has an active brain, a fundamental seriousness that sets her apart, strong observational qualities and a tendency to speak her mind. She knows well enough to do what’s demanded of her, but doesn’t just blankly go along with what’s expected. In this context, she’s an independent thinker, as well as something of a sneak.

Despite using any number of the play’s characters, the early stages of the film stray very far from Shakespeare’s scenes. The opening is a deliberate lift from John Everett Millais’ celebrated 1851-52 painting of Ophelia floating on her back and holding flowers while about to drown, and McCarthy has staged several extravagantly elegant scenes involving the full court at play that are always colorfully diverting.

Ophelia makes repeated visits to a rural witch (also played by Watts) to procure the queen’s mood-enhancers, which the monarch uses with ever-greater frequency, and she’s no wilting lily when it comes to her relations with Prince Hamlet. When he acts like jerk, she sternly warns him, “Do not play with me,” in a way that makes you wonder where she got her spunk and such a sense of self-worth. Fortunately, however, the revision and expansion of the title character never goes so far as to seem downright anachronistic, or like a blatant sop to modern feminist standards. Rather, she seems like a young woman who, early in life, somehow found the strength to speak plainly and not be an unwilling pawn in the stratagems of the royals surrounding her.

To anyone who knows their Shakespeare, it’s impossible at first not to try to correlate what’s onscreen with scenes from the play, to wonder where they will cross paths and then to compare how Shakespeare and his 21 st century acolytes handle the same dramatic situations. Also of undeniable interest are the linguistic parallels and divergences, to analyze how the Bard and the present writers cover the same ground.

Fortunately, there are few such direct comparisons to be made. The language in Ophelia is largely elegant and eloquent, but without trying to compete with Shakespeare in any way. It’s to the film’s additional advantage that the story’s focus in the early-going is very different from the play’s. In fact, the pic becomes marginally less effective the more its track comes close to merging with that of the playwright in the final act. But kudos to both Chellas and Klein for writing strongly enough to encourage the viewer to even temporarily forget about the Bard even as we watch his characters enact some deeply familiar scenes.

Adorned with long tresses of rusty-red hair, Ridley compellingly plays Ophelia with great seriousness. For a while, you think the character might be too guarded and stern to fall in love, and couple of moments of levity, or even just relaxation, might have helped create a warmer audience bond with the self-protective character. But one’s sympathy remains with this keenly revisionist take on one of the most famous figure in dramatic literature.

Watts’ Gertrude is smart but vulnerable, having put herself put herself under the thumb of the dangerously aggressive Claudius, played by Owen as a self-centered ruffian.

By contrast, MacKay’s lively and laddish Hamlet is boisterous, athletic and altogether appealing, unburdened as he is of self-doubting soliloquies. Tom Felton, still trying to shed the shade of Draco Malfoy, does nicely as a lithe Laertes.

McCarthy’s staging of the many big scenes is impressively coherent while avoiding trendy flashiness. It’s modern but not anachronistically so in the manner of her fellow Australian Baz Luhrmann.   

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Production companies: Bobker/Kruger Film, Forthcoming Films Cast: Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, Clive Owen, George MacKay, Tom Felton, Devon Terrell Director: Claire McCarthy Screenwriter: Semi Chellas, based on the novel by Lisa Klein Producers: Daniel Bobker, Sarah Curtis, Ehren Kruger, Paul Hanson Executive producers: Sasha Shapiro, Anton Lessine, Elissa Friedman, Bert Marcus, Matthew Hart, Alastair Burlingham Director of photography: Denson Baker Production designer: Dave Warren Costume designer: Massimo Cantini Parrini Editor: Luke Dunkley Music: Steven Price Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres)

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Review by Maria Nae

Directed by

Claire McCarthy

Daisy Ridley Naomi Watts Tom Felton

Anticipation.

Another Shakespeare adaptation...

Beautiful setting and decent acting.

In Retrospect.

This film supports Shakespeare’s choice to focus on Hamlet.

Daisy Ridley stars in this bold but ultimately confused melodramatic update of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’.

I t cannot be stated enough how terrible the wigs are in Ophelia – a feminist take on ‘Hamlet’ in which Shakespeare himself is missing in action. Director Claire McCarthy and writer Semi Chellas have taken the female character with possibly the least agency in any of Shakespeare’s work, put her in an awful wig, and given her full control over her destiny.

The mission to transform this play into a modern progressive statement (which, strangely, only draws on scant elements of the original text) is evident from the off. “It’s high time I should tell you my story myself,” Ophelia (Daisy Ridley) declares in voiceover while drowning in a river, alluding to John Everett Millais’ famous painting.

Initially Ophelia is mistaken for a young boy and later becomes Queen Gertrude’s (Naomi Watts) favourite lady in waiting. Her duties include preparing the Queen’s bath, reading soft medieval porn to her before bed and, oh, going into the woods dressed as little red riding hood to obtain more youth potion from a witch named Mechtild (Watts again).

Their close relationship quickly and abruptly changes when the Queen learns that her son Hamlet (George MacKey) has fallen in love with Ophelia. Once the King dies at the hand of his mischievous brother Claudius (Clive Owen), Hamlet returns to avenge his father and punish his mother at the expense of his ‘true love’.

Despite attempts to hammer it home, McCarthy struggles to establish a feminist standpoint through the female characters and their relationships to one another, as well as with the men. Gertrude is portrayed as a shallow, cruel wife whose unmet needs lead her to plot her husband’s murder. All of the other ladies in waiting are mean and spiteful. Even Mechtild is depicted as a weak woman hiding from the world because she lost the only thing that a woman can possibly want or need in life – her unborn child.

Ophelia, meanwhile, is confused and consumed by her infantile love for Hamlet. She rejects his advances at first, then falls for him, wants to die when she thinks him dead then ends it with a ‘farewell’ when he faces the possibility of real death.

Ridley brings the same sincerity and ferocity to Ophelia that she does to Rey in Star Wars, and Watts delivers a credible performance that revolves around vanity and midlife crisis. MacKay manages to convince that he is either in love or mad, at times both. However, the story and performances are repeatedly undermined by McCarthy’s decision to focus on the grandiose (but often dull) settings, in many instances purely for aesthetic gains.

The bold cinematography doesn’t compensate for the lack of a consistent tone and style. Ridley looks like a goddess most of the time, but the over-the-top costumes make this film feel like a silly fairy tale rather than a serious tragedy. Having made the decision to abandon Shakespeare’s language – perhaps considered too sophisticated for the young target audience? – the result is a confused melodrama more fitting for a retelling of Twilight in the woods than of the greatest play ever written.

Published 22 Nov 2019

Tags: Daisy Ridley Naomi Watts Tom Felton

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Check out the Maria trailer below ( watch more trailers and clips ):

What happens in the Maria trailer?

The Maria trailer sees Jolie’s Maria Callas reflecting on her life, career, relationships, and more during the final days of her life.

“Academy Award-winner Angelina Jolie is Maria Callas, one of the most iconic performers of the 20th century in acclaimed director Pablo Larrain’s operatic Maria,” the official synopsis reads. “The film follows the American-Greek soprano as she retreats to Paris after a glamorous and tumultuous life in the public eye. Maria reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days as the diva reckons with her identity and life.”

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Maria will be released in select United States theaters on November 27, 2024. It will then be available to stream on Netflix on December 11, 2024.

Brandon Schreur has been writing about comics, movies, television shows, and all things pop culture for roughly five years. He's a lifelong cinephile who spends way, way too much money buying Blu-rays and trade paperbacks. You can find him on twitter at @brandonschreur.

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