CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 8/29/08

If You're Going to Kill a Dane,

Mr. Shakespeare,
Make Sure You Finish the Job

By peter clines

Hamlet 2

Pam Brady & Andrew Fleming (latter also directed)

Dana (Steve Coogan) was an awful actor who's now forced to make a living as a high school drama teacher in Tucson. Alas, his constant string of movie-to-stage adaptations make him a prime target during a wave of budget cuts, so now he's only got a few weeks to inspire his students, impress his superiors, and save his job with the original musical masterpiece he banged out during a drunken binge, Hamlet 2. The screenplay by Pam Brady (South Park) and Andrew Fleming (Nancy Drew), has a lot going for it, especially with such a ridiculously catchy premise and title. However, the story never seems sure of the tone it wants to take. Dana is that uniquely American archetype, the clueless idiot whose every action embarrasses himself and everyone around him. While this sort of character has become a staple of farce (and given Will Ferrell a career), the problem here is the rest of the screenplay is done as a straight comedy. It's lots of situational, almost subtle humor, and characters who do funny things rather than being inherently funny themselves. This constant grating never destroys the script, but it's always there just beneath the surface. The high points come at the moments when Dana acknowledges his incompetence, such as a wonderful scene when he goes to convince the parents of his lead actor, Octavio (Joseph Julian Soria), to let the boy take part in the play, and finds himself sorely outmatched. It isn't a true sequel, but Hamlet 2 has that frequent awkwardness of writers trying to repeat previous genius.

Hamlet 2
Focus Features
Rated R; 92 min.

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Peter Clines has had a lifelong love affair with the movies. He grew up in New England, where he studied English literature and education, and now lives and writes somewhere in Southern California. If anyone knows exactly where, he would appreciate a few hints.

Hamlet 2 courtesy Focus Features

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