While of course, he's assisted greatly by having the full text at his disposal, Branagh never relies far too much on the words alone to carry the work. While it's inhabited by an auspicious cast, Hamlet features an absolutely mesmerizing turn by a young Kate Winslet as Ophelia who one year earlier had been Oscar nominated for her emotionally potent portrayal of Marianne Dashwood in Ang Lee's adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility that was penned by Branagh's ex-wife Emma Thompson.Įxploring new subtextual terrain by offering flashback evidence that Ophelia and Branagh's Hamlet had been involved in a sexual affair and additionally removing the Oedipal reading of the mother/son relationship as witnessed in various adaptations by Olivier and Zefferelli, Branagh therefore manages to truly build up the tragic figure of Ophelia in a way that makes her descent into madness seem less rushed and not without warrant. Knowing when to let the dialogue stand alone by not overpowering the scene with conflicting edits or quick cuts and when to color in the vagueness by depicting the precariousness of the situation with invading forces and the ways that characters are all plotting against each other, Hamlet becomes a complete sensory experience. Dropping the affected rhythms of iambic pentameter to abandon clumsier line readings of the work altogether, while Branagh's wide-ranging ensemble cast varies in their knack for the now oft-quoted turns of phrase, he ensures throughout that the meaning of the lines is routinely enhanced by some truly imaginative wordless cinematographic sequences.