Daisy Ridley reboots Shakespeare’s tragic Ophelia as thoroughly modern heroine

The Star Wars’ favourite turns Hamlet on its head with a fun, feminist take on The Bard’s classic

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OPHELIA

Three stars

Director: Claire McCarthy

Starring: Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, Clive Owen

Running time: 106 minutes

Rating: M

Verdict: A fun, feminist fairytale

This medieval mash-up reimagines Hamlet from his tragic sweetheart’s point of view.

Starring Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) in the title role, the romantic adventure recasts Ophelia as a thoroughly contemporary heroine: independent, passionate, resourceful.

She has the beauty — and bearing — of a modern Disney princess.

Ophelia’s idyllic backdrop reinforces this impression, from the exquisite tapestries that hang on the walls of the castle to the flower-strewn countryside that surrounds it.

Daisy Ridley as Ophelia.

There’s a beautifully-composed recreation of John Everett Millais’s Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece in which the lifeless Danish noblewoman lies partially submerged in the river.

In Australian director Claire McCarthy’s playful retelling of familiar events, Ophelia is shrewd enough to navigate her own way through draughty corridors of power but so pure of heart, she doesn’t fall prey to any of the potential pitfalls.

Largely invisible due to her lowly status as a lady-in-waiting, but favoured by Queen Gertrude (Naomi Watts), Ophelia has unprecedented access to Elsinore’s inner sanctum.

And so the 14th century trailblazer can observe the kingdom’s political machinations at close quarters.

She’s an impartial witness to Claudius’s (Clive Owen) treacherous plots and schemes as well as Gertrude’s internal struggle with her increasingly limited choices.

In this version of events, Hamlet (George MacKay) and Ophelia are a committed couple; the prince’s insanity is a deliberate ploy.

Daisy Ridley and George MacKay as Ophelia and Hamlet.

The Bard’s verse is recontextualized to fit the new narrative.

When Ophelia runs out of her own material — she is not mentioned in the original play after the funeral scene — the filmmakers help themselves to plot twists and turns from other Shakespearean plays, taking her story in unexpected directions.

Rejecting a fate that is determined by vengeance and retribution, Ophelia opts for an alternative existence, in which men would appear to have very little influence.

The film’s resolution offers a fresh twist on Hamlet’s much-debated quote about nunneries.

Ridley is well cast as the feisty rebel who has the courage and intelligence to triumph over centuries of patriarchal oppression.

Naomi Watts as Queen Gertrude.

And Watts lends sympathetic depth to Gertrude, although she is less convincing as the Queen’s witchy/healer double Metchtild, a character that strays a little too far into fantasy territory to be entirely plausible.

George Mackay is solid in the role of Hamlet but he doesn’t have a whole lot to work with — in this story the character is supporting player.

Based on the novel by Lisa Klein, Ophelia is hardly in the same league as Angela Carter (The Company of Wolves) or Jean Rhys (Wild Sargasso Sea).

But it does represent a light, bright, entertaining retelling of a male-skewing classic.

Ophelia opens on August 1

Originally published as Daisy Ridley reboots Shakespeare’s tragic Ophelia as thoroughly modern heroine