In the film of the same title, HAMLET 2 is the name of the stage play protagonist drama high school teacher, Dana Marschz (Brit Steve Coogan) is writing, directing and staging to save the drama class from being axed.  He is inspirational but too much a kid at heart, always over cheerful and over zealous to the point of driving everyone else including the audience crazy.

The brainchild of director/writer Andrew Fleming and co-writer Pam Brady, the story has lots of potential for comedy.  It is also easy to see the reason for a story like this to work.  HAMELET 2 is a feel-good movie about an underdog making good in the same discipline as the writers.  References to other similar films like GOOD WILL HUNTING and DANGEROUS MINDS indicate where the inspiration may have come from.

HAMLET 2 is saved by the performances of both Steve Coogan and Catherine Keener interacting extremely well as the bickering couple.  Coogan demonstrates both his comedic and dramatic side and is able to wring out sympathy from a role of an annoying person.  In the smaller supporting role that Keener is given, she noticeably brings the film back to earth and her man to reality.  The introduction of the character Elisabeth Shue as herself elevates the comedy to have the audience laughing at something else besides Dana’s antics.

Though the character of Dana requires him to be cheerfully unrealistic all the time, the film suffers from this very proposition.  The credibility of such a character unmoved by constant negative forces circumstances is questionable.  Worst still, the absurdity of the premise of a successful play based on Hamlet traveling through time is too much to fathom.  The final result is a disjointed comedy, hilarious at parts, that does not quite come together.