Hamlet (2025)

Review of “Hamlet” (2025): a tense modern tragedy about power, grief, and family collapse

The new “Hamlet”, directed by Aneil Karia, moves Shakespeare’s tragedy from the royal court to modern-day London, where power is measured not by crowns, but by property, family capital, and corporate influence. The lead role is played by Riz Ahmed, with Morfydd Clark, Art Malik, Sheeba Chaddha, Joe Alwyn, and Timothy Spall also among the key cast members.

This “Hamlet” does not try to be a museum-like adaptation of Shakespeare. The film relies on tension, pace, and the inner fracture of its hero. Hamlet here is not a detached philosopher, but a man on the edge, crushed by his father’s death, his mother’s hasty remarriage, and the feeling that his entire family is built on lies. The modern setting strengthens the theme of inheritance: this is not only about the throne, but about control over business, land, reputation, and people.

The film’s greatest strength is Riz Ahmed. His Hamlet is neither romanticized nor softened: he is sharp, anxious, impulsive, and almost physically unable to cope with his own pain. In this version, the famous monologues do not sound like academic recitation, but like bursts of internal overheating. The “To be or not to be” scene is especially important, and has been noted in reviews as one of the adaptation’s most cinematic and tense moments.

Karia noticeably shortens and condenses the play, making the film more straightforward, but also harsher. What comes to the foreground is not the grandeur of the classic text, but a toxic family system: Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, and Laertes exist in a world where love quickly turns into control, and grief becomes a tool of pressure. Sometimes this concentration works powerfully; at other times, it leaves the impression that some characters, especially Ophelia, were not given enough space.

Visually, the film is cold, urban, and unsettling. Night streets, enclosed spaces, corporate luxury, and a constant sense of surveillance turn the story into a psychological thriller about a man who no longer understands where truth ends and where the product of his damaged mind begins. In this sense, the new version successfully emphasizes the central question of the tragedy: does Hamlet truly see the crime, or is he gradually becoming part of it himself?

“Hamlet” (2025) is not a perfect adaptation, but it is an expressive one. It can be criticized for being overly compressed and uneven in its treatment of secondary storylines, but the film has strong energy, a modern rhythm, and a powerful central performance by Riz Ahmed. This is a dark, tense, and relevant version of the classic, in which Shakespeare’s tragedy sounds like a story about inherited trauma, wealth, guilt, and the impossibility of escaping one’s own family.