|
|
Los Angeles, today: Henry IV (Harry Lennix) is a powerful leader in the
black community who's respected by all - but he fails to control his own
son and heir apparent Harry, Prince of Watts (Amad Jackson), to whom
politics let alone diplomacy mean little, and who has fallen to the lures
of a criminal life, as propagated by his friend, the cowardly Falstaff
(Angus Macfadyen). So while his father tries to keep things together,
Harry instigates a war within the community, a war he manages to win more
by chance than design. But Harry's no fool, so when his father lies on his
death bed, he is quick to snag his power, get rid of his enemies using the
Chief Justice (Victoria Gabrielle Platt) as his fig leaf, and after the
death of Henry IV he does a full 360 on his former life, even if that
means betraying those who got him where he is today ... Now H4
is not by a longshot the first modernization of one (or in this case two)
of Shakespeare's plays, but yet another film that proves how vibrant and
universal a playwright the man actually was - and ok, granted, this is
something that didn't need further proof. But all that said, taken by
its own merits, H4 is a fast-paced urban drama with Shakespeare's
language going surprisingly well with the contemporary settings and
action, and while the direction finds just the right balance between the
necessary grittiness and the bard's larger-than-life story, the (strong)
cast give uniformly down-to-earth performances (excepting Angus Macfadyen
of course, as Falstaff needs to be ham by nature), all making this into a
very cool piece of genre cinema. Now granted, Shakespeare purists will
probably turn their heads in disgust (out of principle rather than
judgment), but for the rest of us, this comes across as very enjoyable
genre entertainment.
|
|
|