CORIALANUS (UKL 2011) **
Directed by Ralph Fiennes

Grade-A effort but ultimately dreadful failure from actor Fiennes in directing and acting in William Shakespeare’s lesser known play CORIALANUS.  Cumbersome, boring and largely unwatchable, the worst idea is updating the Roman times play to the modern world of CNN News and media.

The protagonist of the play is Caius Martius ‘Coriolanus’ (Ralph Fiennes), a revered and feared Roman General who is at odds with the city of Rome and his fellow citizens.  Pushed by his controlling and ambitious mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) to seek the exalted and powerful position of Consul, he is loath to ingratiate himself with the masses whose votes he needs in order to secure the office.  When the public refuses to support him, Coriolanus’s anger prompts a riot that culminates in his expulsion from Rome. The banished hero then allies himself with his sworn enemy Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) to take his revenge on the city.

Fiennes overacts to no end, Jessica Chastain’s playing Corialanus’s wife is her most embarrassing role to date and Brian Cox quotes Shakespeare to sheer silliness.  Only Vanessa Redgrave emerges unscathed, making some sense of her dialogue as Corialanus’s mother who convinces him not to destroy Rome.

Fiennes cannot decide on whether the Roman General is a great man sacrificing all or just a hot tempered idiot.  Most of the time is spent with him screaming his head off at both the Consul and at the Roman citizens.  Gerard Butler as his arch enemy, Aufidius fares no better as a discarded mongrel growling all the time.

It is always a pleasure to listen to the Bard’s lines such as: “There is as much mercy in him as in a male tiger’s milk” as Menenius utters, or “I will not let you tread on me,” begging Corialanus’s son but alas, these words only fall on deaf ears.

While the old Bard’s dialogue remains intact, the modern day setting looks totally absurd.  As limousines drive the high ranking officers to and from their battle grounds, and the media report the daily fighting, one wonders what got into the mind of the filmmakers to adapt the play to modern times.  The brutality of the battles is not compromised with the blood, gore and violence left to shock the audience.  Though the film is basically set in a man’s world, the female roles (mother and wife) only serve to further man’s purpose of fighting to no end.

CORIALANUS has been cited by many scholars to be Shakespeare’s worst play.  The film only serves to prove the point.