In the film The Spanish Prisoner, Campbell Scott played the lead -- a smart man who is innocent nearly to the point of stupidity. His boss and co-workers enact a huge theft and dupe him into being the fall guy for it. Watching it, I wondered where on earth did they have a supply of such men -- articulate, and ... well, I can't think of any other word -- gentlemanly. In that movie I didn't guess that his father was George C. Scott, but in the movie I just watched last night, Hamlet, I kept seeing the resemblance. It's all in the mouth and chin.

This version of Hamlet is weird. It's set roughly in the Victorian era, of all times. Nobody has a British accent, they're all American (and kind of odd choices for some of the roles. The one guy, from The Sopranos?). I was automatically objecting to this early in the movie, because it seemed to strain disbelief that Jamey Sheridan was supposed to be Claudius, King of Denmark, instead of the captain on Law and Order; and everyone's speaking these beautiful lines in our unmusical accent. But after awhile, the entire story seems to work perfectly. At some point I stopped noticing the accents and the clothes and was completely committed.

It's strange, though: No lines are changed, really, it's faithful to the script. Scott is so good at acquiring empathy from the audience that for the first time I was not admiring the performances of Shakespearean actors doing a difficult play, I was actually upset that Hamlet's girlfriend was being put in the ground in front of him, and that Laertes was actually trying to kill him, not just humiliate him, and that nobody in the whole place could seem to tell the truth.

The stuff with the ghost was actually a little frightening, not just the usual misty-and-artistic. The swordfight at the end looked like it might've killed someone, too. And for the first time, I was convinced that this Hamlet did go partly mad. Of course, in a movie the acting doesn't have to be so broad, so you can relate to the players in ways you can't on a stage.

I wonder if old audiences liked the play this much. It was both directed and produced by Campbell Scott, and I am impressed as hell. And the fact that he's gorgeous doesn't hurt.