The Bard power be squirming in his grave, just not actually turning, with "'Hamlet 2," given that it doesn't quite alive up to its eccentrically campy promise.
(Cathy Kanavy/Focus Features)
Steve Coogan is sometimes absurdly funny as a delusional dramatic event teacher and tortured artist. And a couple of the production numbers in the redux of the Shakespearean play are crazy clever, simply the wit is spotted and sporadic. Its sharply funny moments make its lack of consistency all the more evident. The movie ends up feeling like a collection of moments, instead than a coherent way-out comedy.
Coogan plays wannabe actor/ high school drama teacher Dana Marschz (the pronunciation of which is a recurring jocularity). His failed attempts at acting ar a comic highlight. Catherine Keener plays his dysphoric wife, Brie, who is joined at the rose hip by their roommate/boarder (David Arquette).
Dana considers himself an inspirational teacher and brave drama promoter. But he quakes in the face of the critical pans of a puny ninth-grade student world Health Organization gives his plays (including a theatrical version of Erin Brockovich) a series of bad reviews.
Dana as well is veneer the imminent closure of the dramaturgy program, as his Tucson public heights school faces budget cuts. He conceives of a sequel to Hamlet done as musical theater and is positive of its brilliance.
The racy material outrages the school principal, and much of the biotic community, but Dana thinks he has polish off creative pay up dirt. As protests mount, he gets unexpected support from an ACLU attorney with the amusing list of Cricket Feldstein (Amy Poehler).
Elisabeth Shue has a strange office as a version of herself wHO has given up playacting for nursing. Dana's quest for artistic expression is realized during the melodious extravaganza with its preposterously catchy number,"Rock Me, Sexy Jesus."
This Sundance Film Festival hit is irreverent and occasionally inspired. But the best constituent is the ambitious production. When it focuses to a fault much on the travails of the high school students he means to guide and mold, the movie strays into "Dangerous Minds" territory and loses its mirthful punch.
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