A Revenger's Tragedy review

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Just last year, Shakespeare's King Lear was transposed to the criminal underworld of contemporary Liverpool. Now director Alex Cox and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce have done much the same to Thomas Middleton's Jacobean tragi-comedy, plonking it slap-bang in the middle of the city. Only this time, it's a war-ravaged, futuristic Liverpool.

Vindici (Christopher Eccleston) is the wild-eyed stranger in town, out to make the ruling dynasty pay for the wedding-day murder of his wife a decade earlier. His plan is to infiltrate the royal court by befriending the villainous son and heir Lussurioso (Eddie Izzard).

Shot in the spirit of one of Derek Jarman's anarchic provocations, A Revenger's Tragedy collides the original 17th-century dialogue with present-day profanities and gaudily decorates its cast with an array of tattoos, body piercings and outlandish hairstyles. Contemporary parallels to the beatification of Princess Diana and the malign influence of Rupert Murdoch are then sledgehammered home, ensuring the film fails to so much as tickle the emotions, let alone engage them.

NO VERDICT

More info

Available platformsMovie
Less

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.