-
Trust Weighted
Good
-
5Trust Points
BigdaddyDave's Review
Summary - Good 3.0
A quirky film that never really seems to rise to it’s full potential, Scotland, PA manages to be entertaining, without taking itself too seriously. Based on William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, about greed, envy and murder, this version is set in a fast-food diner in the 1970’s.
The movie is dark humor, and is admittedly inspired by the movie Fargo. While there are no real laugh-out loud moments, its does manages to raise a few chuckles, especially in its inventive way of transposing characters from a verbose 1600’s play, to a movie that captures many elements of the 1970s, including music, pot smoking, and creative advances in restaurants (i.e., drive-throughs and chicken nuggets).
Those who are traditionally intimidated by the Bard’s flowing language will be pleasantly surprised to find none of that present, replaced with common vernacular and vulgarities. Those who fancy themselves fans of the original work will probably cringe at the liberties are taken with many characters and story lines. For example, an opening scene in the play with three ghosts from battle, is replaced with three potheads. Humorous, but it does lose something in transposition.
I give credit for having the courage to make a film like this, as many of Shakespeare’s plays contain stories that could translate well to the mass media, if converted to present-day language. But, in the end, Scotland, PA is good, but not much more.
It got good reviews at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, but that doesn’t always translate into mass public appeal.