Rating of
4/4
Splendid performances with a sense of depth
sreekirch - wrote on 06/18/12
Coriolanus is the directorial debut of Ralph Fiennes, who plays as Marcius Coriolanus. With the end of Harry potter series, it seems that Ralph Fiennes has entered to take a movie on his own hand. Without making any experimentation, he has chosen a tragedy drama written by William Shakespeare during the period 1608. With a powerful cast chosen in form of Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain(wife) and Vanessa Redgrave(mother) to reprise their respective roles, Ralph has already emerged a winner. Considering the previous experience of Gerard, we might jump to a conclusion that he has lost the image of taking powerful roles since 300. The plot in here demands a much stronger role that might really help him from his previous failures. John Logan who is already much experienced in handling the plot that banishes the protagonist (from Sweeney Todd: The demon barber of Fleet street), has once again handled the plot development with immense care without hiccups.
The plot opens in Rome, where a team led by Marcius infiltrate the camp of Volscians led by Aufidius (Gerard Butler). After victory against them, Marcius has been decided to become the consul of Rome. But some anti Marcius group try to reinforce bad image of him in the people and this leads him to get banished from Rome. With no sort of ideas Marcius now called the Coriolanus, leaves Rome and joins with Aufidius. He swears to take revenge on Rome. Now he leads a powerful team that is ready to strike Rome. The two enemies of all time who have fought nearly five times have joined hands. Is this the fate of Rome?
Plot development is actually a bit slow in the beginning. With a run time of 127 minutes, movie might seem longer with lot of dialogs and less of war and action setups. But it is the dialogs that give the strength to the plot. This is a rare case, where dialogs dominate the action on screen. Plot elements like victory with waging war, promotion, people going against Coriolanus, and joining the allies are all well set without messing up. The power packed performances from Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave will drive the scenes with extreme gusto and depth. Emotional quotient is also well reserved. The first sixty minutes sets up the plot and the next sixty is all about how Rome is going to accept its fate in form of banishing Coriolanus. The climax is neat and gives a perfect way to finish the plot.
Character development is fantastic in here. Ralph Fiennes has emerged a winner by his role. The three roles by Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain and Vanessa Redgrave is stupendous and the plot demanded such key characters and they have done total justice to it. After Harry Potter, we still remember the gutsy and rotten voice of Ralph played as Voldemort in some scenes, but when he gets anger his control of emotions is evident by soul striking dialogs from the heart. The direction is fantastic. Lot of loud noises during the chaos and boos at the entrance of Coriolanus sets up the mood of the scene.
So the end result is simple. With a strong plot, and powerful performances, Shakespeare tragedy drama adaptation is real as likeable. Ralph Fiennes has emerged victorious from here. Let me remind that, this is not intended for popcorn entertainment nor money making raking up and breaking box office records. It is simple drama that leads with powerful presence of strong cast, striking the right chord to get a chance to enter the Oscar.
This movie knocked my socks off.
