Kenneth Branagh's film of Shakespeare's Hamlet is remarkable for the use of the entire, uncut text of the play and for its elaborate design. Despite the director's commitment to the full text, however, he shows an even more remarkable lack of faith in the power of the language and acting and, in fact, visually supplements the text at certain points in ways that underline his uneasiness with leaving anything unshown. The visual strategy devised for this film is revealed in many places to be based on reasonable considerations of how the look of the piece can enhance its meanings. But even when the best intentions govern the choices the film fails in almost every respect because the production design, costumes, and art direction seem to be there for their own sake rather than to serve the drama.
The facts behind the production of the film hint at the problems. The interiors of Elsinore Castle were constructed on two adjoining stages at Shepperton Studios in England and joined by connecting doors "making it, at over 250 feet in length, the largest single set in the United Kingdom" (Castle Rock). The designers intended to make the sets reflect Scandinavian neoclassicism of the early nineteenth century. But the exteriors were filmed at Blenheim Palace, the home of the Dukes of Marlborough, which was built by John Vanbrugh between 1705 and 1722. Other exteriors were shot on the grounds of the palace, employing many tons of imitation snow. The costumes, designed by Alexandra Byrne, derive from nineteenth century styles, although the uniforms are simplified fantasy versions of such clothing that look like they were intended for a 1920s musical rather than for the leaders and soldiers of a warlike state.
In some respects the film suffers from basic mistakes that filmmakers often assume audiences will simply fail to notice. There is, for example, a lack of fireplaces that makes the viewer wonder why the people are not shivering ...