Talk about The tragedy of being bored. Now and then, a movie earns more undeserved praise than it is worth because of an established director securing multiple acting heavyweights. The most recent example I can think of was in 2017 when Steven Spielberg combined with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks for The Post; the movie was dubbed an Oscar lock, especially after 2015’s fantastic movie Spotlight (also about a newspaper reporting a highly publicized scandal) received six Academy Award nominations, including two wins. Drab, The Post failed to meet expectations, earning just six Academy Award nominations and winning just two.

While I expect Joel Coen’s (Fargo, No Country for Old Men) The Tragedy of Macbeth to receive multiple Oscar nominations, I feel much of this will be through name notoriety, especially with two titans in the industry (Denzel Washington – Training Day, Fences) and Frances McDormand (Nomadland, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) as his two leads. I understand that William Shakespeare purists will love so much about this movie. I got much more out of reading this in 12th-grade AP English than I did suffering through this snoozer on the big screen.

Admittedly, the Coens aren’t my favorite directors. Inside Llewyn Davis, True Grit, A Serious Man, No Country for Old Men, and Fargo were tremendous. Fargo was one of the most brilliantly made movies I’ve ever seen. Hail, Caesar!, Burn After Reading, The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Miller’s Crossing were terrible. Considering the incredible movie score, Miller’s Crossing was such a disappointment. Barton Fink was, as well.

Toss The Tragedy of Macbeth into a category of disappointing to terrible. I realize I’m in the minority, but the film offered me nothing. Romeo and Juliet is my favorite Shakespeare play by far. It was the first one I was exposed to, and it was a favorable first impression. Macbeth is my second favorite. Richard III is third. The Taming of the Shrew is probably fourth. The commonality between the four was they were all read aloud in my high school English classes. There was something special about reading those plays aloud with my classmates. Perhaps that was how they should all be experienced. I’ve seen half a dozen Shakespeare plays (I’m grateful to have the Sidney Harman Hall – Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, so close to where I live). Unfortunately, most were unmemorable, so much so that I can’t remember which ones I saw.

I disliked The Tragedy of Macbeth from the first five minutes. It is challenging for me to use the Shakespearean language in a movie. Sometimes, Shakespeare’s movies follow this route. Sometimes they don’t. Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet went this route in a modern setting. Despite my initial reservations that I wouldn’t like it, it was a highly effective movie. I’m tentative to see films like Julius Ceasar (the Marlon Brando one) or Hamlet (the Mel Gibson one) for fear that I’ll be as disinterested as I was during The Tragedy of Macbeth. I likely will not see those films. The difference here is that The Tragedy of Macbeth will likely receive Oscar nominations, including in the big four awards.

I also don’t love newly released movies in black and white. What is ironic here is that the two films of 2021 that I have yet to see that I’m most looking forward to, Belfast (please, please, please meet the lofty expectations I have set for you) and C’mon, C’mon are both filmed in black and white. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, the greys (especially regarding the element of fog) set an ominous mood that carries throughout. This tone is the best thing this film has going for it, and, honestly, this would not have been easy to achieve either on a stage or if filmed in color.

The actors bring it, even if there isn’t a lot of chemistry between them. Washington is great as the title character, as was McDormand as his wife. However, much like Kate Winslet in the Divergent series or Jeremy Renner, who is constantly reprising his roles in The Avenger movies and the Mission Impossible franchise, I think of all of the films that they could be doing while they were spending their time filming a movie such as The Tragedy of Macbeth (but perhaps the shoot time was short). The difference between the two scenarios is that Winslet and Renner signed on for big paydays (though when actors of their caliber do this, I hope this allows them to do more independent movies where they take less than what they could demand in a more marketable film).

With Washington and McDormand, perhaps they wanted to do a Shakespeare page in their careers. Or maybe they wanted to work with each other or have Coen as their director. I can’t fault them for that. They picked a boring movie, but it’s their choice, and they are both likely to earn Oscar nominations. So there are a lot of advantages to their choices. This movie disappointed me, though.

Plot 8/10
Character Development 5/10
Character Chemistry 7/10
Acting 10/10 (no knocking the acting. This film showcases two of the best who have been sharing the screen for the first time. Each will get Oscar nods. In an inferior year, perhaps they are deserving, though this is a highly competitive year in the lead actress category. I hope that name recognition doesn’t knock a performance such as Kristen Stewart’s Spencer out of receiving a nod)
Screenplay 9/10 (Shakespeare is brilliant)
Directing  4.5/10 (Coen’s telling offered me nothing…, I was checked out fifteen minutes in…his direction was slow…and not in a good way)
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 7/10
Hook and Reel 4/10
Universal Relevance 5/10 (while Shakespeare’s works need to live, sometimes less is more…there wasn’t a need for this film)
67.5%

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• Oh Brother, Where Art Though
• Romeo and Juliet (the Leonardo DiCaprio one is the only one that needs to be seen
• Miller’s Crossing
• O
• A Simple Plan