A predictably towering performance from Michael Fassbender is excellently supported by Marion Cotillard, and a who’s who cast of the best British actors working today.

Biblical in scale, Macbeth is a huge and brooding film – Adam Arkapaw’s outstanding cinematography and Jed Kurzel’s colossal, Sigur Rós-esque score combine to make it a bold, compelling, and immediate experience.

Only a somewhat underdeveloped relationship between Macbeth and his Lady detracts from this powerful and fresh take on the material, as we struggle to see why they are taking such risks for each other.

Performance, setting, look, and sound successfully come together to generate the drama and monumental scale required of Kurzel to do justice to Shakespeare’s work.

RATING: 4/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, David Thewlis

DIRECTOR: Justin Kurzel

WRITERS: Jacob Koskoff (screenplay), Michael Lesslie (screenplay), William Shakespeare (play)

SYNOPSIS: Macbeth, a duke of Scotland, follows his ambition to become King.