The fantastic Joan Collins brings a real light to this comedy documentary-style like film about a small theater company rehearsing "Hamlet" during the Christmas season and all of the obstacles that director and star Michael Maloney faces. Dame Joan plays a theatrical proprietress aiding Maloney along the way, mostly there for telephone calls as you deals with frustration among the sometimes overly sensitive and often egotistical driven cast whose temperamental outbursts are often funny and overly sensitive burst into tears downright hysterical.
Written and directed by Kenneth Branagh, this will obviously be appreciated more by theatre fans and those involved in the business. They will certainly relate to a lot of the things that go on in the rehearsal process, making this a more serious equally funny variation of "Noises Off!" My only issue is that after a while, it begins to seem to be repeating itself, but the cast is hysterically funny throughout. So while this production of "Hamlet" may not win any prizes, the film is hardly an omelet, especially with a man playing Queen Gertrude and a very funny Noel Coward "list" song heard throughout the film.
Written and directed by Kenneth Branagh, this will obviously be appreciated more by theatre fans and those involved in the business. They will certainly relate to a lot of the things that go on in the rehearsal process, making this a more serious equally funny variation of "Noises Off!" My only issue is that after a while, it begins to seem to be repeating itself, but the cast is hysterically funny throughout. So while this production of "Hamlet" may not win any prizes, the film is hardly an omelet, especially with a man playing Queen Gertrude and a very funny Noel Coward "list" song heard throughout the film.