overacting hamlet
man, talk about an over the top performance. did he always have to mug/ bug his eyes? and why were the colors so drab and washed out?
About his eyes: it looks to me that he had some Botox, which explains that kinda buggy, kinda "deer in the headlights" look he had. I thought his eyes look unnaturally wide to me, and then I noticed certain muscles around his lower eyes weren't moving. Tennant has a slight problem with the muscles in his left eyes, that when he squints or smiles, his left lower eyelid raises up more than the right. Yet his lower lids were immobile in this production, suggesting he had Botox, because I saw a pic of him in late 2009, and that left lower eyelid thing was very, very noticeable, as it always has been, except in this production.
Unfortunately, I think it had an effect on his overall expressiveness, and not for the better. At times when he was suppose to look angry or upset, he just looked dyspeptic, like the champagne they were (stage)drinking in Act I wasn't sitting well with him or something.
I really hated the scenes with Tennant or other actors looking right into the camera. This sort of thing works better on stage, when an actor can turn toward the audience and just speak in their general direction, but with a camera, it's too obnoxious. It's like having a person make direct eye contact with you--it's uncomfortable, and unless your reason as an actor for doing it is to make the audience uncomfortable, then you probably should avoid doing. Yet Tennant did it excessively. I really disliked this during Hamlet's soliloquies, where Tennant would start off acting unaware of the camera and then suddenly turn to the camera and talk right into it. Either the soliloquies conversationally address the audience, or they are private, interior dialogues spoken aloud that the audience is observing. Pick one and stick to it. But of course, Tennant had to try to do both at once, and it just didn't work, IMO.
The lighting was pretty dreadful too. The set itself was problematic for filming, lots of glossy black with metallic accents in that main set, and both reflective surfaces and metallic tones like those are both notorious turn drab and flat on film. The lighting was pretty unflattering for most of the actors as well: Gail, Stewart and Davies looked bloodless, the guy who played Horatio looked ashy and Tennant was looking jaundiced in some of the scenes. The whole thing looked like it was shot with florescent shop lights.
I don't have an issue with Tennant "overacting" so much as I don't like his and Doran's choice to play Hamlet in the way they did. With Hamlet's madness, interpretations run the spectrum from it all being Hamlet's ruse to keep his plans for revenge a secret from Claudius to him being full-blown insane. I think Shakespeare was aiming for something more nuanced and in the middle of those two ends, but Tennant and Doran went with the "Hamlet's just pretending to be crazy" vein, and it just ended up with Hamlet acting like a brat at times, which I think is counter to the gravity of Hamlet's ordeal.
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Re: About his eyes:
As someone who has eye muscle problems running throughout her family. Most eye muscle problems are worse when tired. He was most probably just refreshed and had a good night's sleep.
Not to mention a photograph is a split second, you can't judge anything on "a pic of him in late 2009"
And personally, as a life-long Shakespeare and Hamlet fan, I think it's one of the best interpretations I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot).
I am a lifelong Shakespeare and Hamlet fan as well; even studied in London and saw Hamlet at the young Vic, and have taught Hamlet in High School and at University.
Well, different people like different things after all. It'd be a boring world if not.
(My comment was more aimed at rosepitseleh anyway)
I also have that thing with the eye when I smile, my right eye actually :D
It gets smaller then the left eye when I smile :P It's not really like you notice it unless you know it :D
I wish i could tell you more, but [insert goverment/aliens/terrorists of choice] are listening!