Macbeth (Justin Kurzel)

[Grouchy]

As straight forward versions of Macbeth go, this has to be one of the best. I've never seen the Connery or the Welles ones and I have only vague memories of Polanski's although I remember it being very twisted.

As some critics point out (quoted in the movie's Wikipedia page) the problem with the character of Macbeth is that he goes from a man of some nobility who gets tempted by power and his wife's lust for it to a demented hunchback pretty quickly in the play. Fassbender's performance is indeed superior because he instills the whole character arc with a palpable sense of fatality that accompanies that sudden change. Anyway, I have an acquired taste for romantic doom (love Poe's poetry and my favorite piece of classical music is Schubert's Death and the Maiden) so I really don't mind the inherent gloominess of the source material.