Just about anything you can say about this delightful picture makes it sound dreadful. The title is glum, the director is Kenneth Branagh and it's shot in arty B&W. Worse, it's about a band of plucky, eccentric thespians putting on a Christmas show --
Hamlet,
that notorious holiday crowd-pleaser -- in a dank country church that's about to fall to avaricious property developers. Strangely enough, however, the film is funny, engaging and even -- much as we hate to admit it -- heartwarming. Sure, the dialogue is too clever by half and the level of comic
invention elementary at best (of course the old homophobe and the mincing queen will have to bunk together, a...
Released:
1995
Rated:
R
Length:
98 mins