Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Oldman and Roth), old college buddies of Hamlet, hang out at the court of his mother and uncle and watch the proceedings. They don't understand their old friend's behavior, chalk it up to mere depression, and pass the time playing word games and discussing scientific and philosophical matters. A company of players led by a hammy Player King (Dreyfuss) provides a little comic relief, though our heroes naturally have no idea what Hamlet is up to. British playwright Tom Stoppard wrote and directed this 1990 screen adaptation of his own play about fate and how much we really understand what is going on in our lives, a quarter century after it charmed the Anglo-American world on stage. Beautifully filmed in Slovenia and Croatia (Stoppard is a native of Czechoslovakia), witty and perkily acted, the movie may not work as well as the play: dialogue is swift and hard to follow, and the average viewer may be left scratching his head.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
