Critic Reviews

Eyre’s ambitions are far more modest than Brook’s: to give viewers a modern-day King Lear as crackling entertainment, filled with big performances, recognizable faces, propulsive editing, and a contemporary setting. ... Across the board, the acting in this adaptation is exquisite.

Just because nobody could or should feel this is a definitive King Lear detracts only somewhat from the undeniable joy that comes from even two hours of watching Anthony Hopkins gnash his teeth, wail and go gloriously mad opposite one of the best supporting casts imaginable.

Mr. Hopkins transforms one of Shakespeare’s most complex tragic figures into a frightening, ego-driven autocrat hurtling into insanity from which he claws his way back, leaving a trail of blood and daughters in his wake. ... Jim Broadbent is a noble, fragile Earl of Gloucester, Jim Carter a sturdy Earl of Kent and John Macmillan a convincingly evil Edmund. As the Fool, Karl Johnson is mischievous and droll, and the scenes he and Mr. Hopkins have together are the most moving in the film.

Eyre has cut the text to the bone, sometimes to its detriment, though the edits elevate the play’s parallel, secondary story--the bastard Edmund (John McMillan) plotting against his father, the Earl of Gloucester (Jim Broadbent) and his half-brother Edgar (Andrew Scott)--in fascinating ways.

King Lear starts to break down near the last third with a choppiness that takes a toll on the logic of the piece. Still, the performances hold it together; this play has always been focused on human suffering. Amazon’s King Lear is by no means a definitive adaptation of what is arguably the Bard’s finest tragedy, but it is a thrilling and entertaining one.

The gray cinematography is unforgivably mulchy, though, giving the dialogue a speechy repetitiveness. But Emma Thompson and Emily Watson shine in the crazy good cast as Lear's older daughters. [28 Sep 2018, p.49]