Coriolanus (15)

Alison Rowat's Review

Delivering Shakespeare as younger audiences might like it is the battle plan of Ralph Fiennes in his directorial debut.

RSC stalwarts Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Cox join forces with Paisley’s own Gerard Butler and Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life) to update one of the playwright’s bloodiest tragedies.

Shot in Belgrade, with echoes of the Balkans conflict, Fiennes maintains an impressive pace throughout. It still feels like English homework at times, but terrific fight scenes, and a powerhouse turn from Butler, cheer things up no end.

Watch out for Jon Snow of Channel 4 News playing a Shakespeare-spouting broadcaster. Don’t give up the evening job, mate.

Paul Greenwood's Review

In a place calling itself Rome, General Caius Martius (Ralph Fiennes) is hated by the people, who are desperate for food.

But when he defeats his great enemy Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler), he returns in triumph and is given the title Coriolanus.

His subsequent decision to run for consul upsets a pair of scheming tribunes who conspire against him, and this, along with his inability to associate with the common people, leads to his downfall.

Though retaining and streamlining Shakespeare’s words, Fiennes, right, in his directing debut, has updated the setting to modern day Eastern Europe, which cleverly allows TV reports to do the exposition, and for allegorical parallels to be drawn.

He delivers action that is visceral and gritty, with running gun battles in the streets and vicious close-quarters combat, as well as giving a commanding, full-blooded, performance.

But the film’s failings lie with the Bard, in what simply isn’t one of his most accessible or interesting works, one in which the motivations of its central character are murky at best, if not downright annoying.