Film Review: Coriolanus (15) (From The Northern Echo)

Film Review: Coriolanus (15)

5:06pm Thursday 19th January 2012 in Reviews By Steve Pratt

Rating: 4/5

NOT Shakespeare’s most famous or easiest play but, in the hands of actor-turned-director Ralph Fiennes, a gripping movie that turns the drama in a cinematic occasion and not just a filmed play.

Click here to check showtimes for Coriolanus (15)

Shot in Belgrade, the Rome of this film is a modern-day, war-torn country where general Caius Martius (Fiennes) takes up arms against Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) and the Volscians.

Is it me, or is this beginning to sound like an episode of Star Trek?

Martius – or Coriolanus as he becomes after receiving an honorary title – has a devoted but silent wife (Jessica Chastain) but it’s his mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave, excellent as the scheming matriarch) who exerts greatest influence over him.

Politics being politics, he finds himself targeted by the people’s representatives (James Nesbitt and Paul Jesson) who dislike his despotic ways and get him banished as a traitor. His answer is to team up with Aufidius and attack Rome.

As an actor, Fiennes makes an imposing if fearsome Coriolanus. As a director, he has a vision of Shakespeare’s play that he carries through to make a stirring movie.