Scotland, PA

Lately, I've been forcing everyone I know to watch this film. It may not go down in history, but it is hilariously funny--especially if you don't take it too seriously! People need to chill out a bit about it, and not try to analyze it too deeply. It's a funny 1970's version of Macbeth with fabulous actors and actresses, and while much of its comedy comes from its similarites to the play, much of the comedy stands on its own. It's a great update, and I don't think it should be compared to films like "Shakespeare in Love" because the idea is completely different. It's not too violent of a black comedy, either, though moments like the killing of Duncan are outright hilarious. Take smaller moments, too, like when the children play with the body of Banco as it's being taken away. The acting is excellent--Tierney, Le Gros, Walkin...what else do I have to say? It's a fun film that I think you should see.

There are some that say if Shakespeare lived today he'd be a screenwriter. I don't know if that would be true, but it would be nice to speculate about it. Some proof that this might be possible comes from viewing actor/ first time writer director Billy Morrissette's (Pump up the volume) SCOTLAND, PA, a modern day reworking of MacBeth.

Set in the mid seventies SCOTLAND, PA stars James LeGros (Psycho) as Joe MacBeth a cook at Duncan's café. He the kind of guy with lots of ideas, but absolutely no drive and so people walk all over him. So when his boss Norm Duncan (James Rebhorn, Far From Heaven) uses some of them while promoting his useless son Malcolm, his wife Pat(Maura Tierney, Primary Colors), a beautiful and driven hatch's a plan. She and ‘Mac' are going to kill Duncan (who by the way made his fortune in Donuts (yes it's corny but I found it kind of funny)) and open up MacBeth's the first fast food drive-thru restaurant in Scotland, PA.

SCOTLAND, PA plays fast and loose with it's source material and has some really great ideas jammed packed in it. It's always fun to reinterpret Shakespeare, because his works are timeless. You can set them in the 18th century or a hundred years in the future and the characters are still real and powerful.

Maura Tierney's Lady MacBeth is phenomenal. It is a performance full of subtle nuance; of course she hatches the plan and is able to manipulate MacBeth. But there is also vulnerability about her. I wonder if she were my wife would I not follow? I'd probably do anything she said. She kind of reminds me of my fiancé, in whom I would probably kill for. That's the mark of a great femme fatale. Her performance is engaging and wonderful, and one of the best I've seen in a long time.

It's the other character's that seem understated and dull. No other performance really sticks out until Christopher Walken show's up. He portrays Lieutenant McDuff, the detective sent out to figure out just who killed Duncan. He plays the part with that certain gusto that only Walken could bring to the role. He's plays parts like these so well, he's always walking that thin line between quirky and bored and you can't help but be enchanted by him. He's really amazing.

I also enjoyed Amy Smart (Outside Providence), Andy Dick (Dude, Where's My Car?) and Timothy ‘Speed' Levitch (The Crusie) as the three witches. They offer the comic relief that some points of the movie desperately needed. Sure they were a little corny and maybe a bit to zany for the film, but since the movie has a certain silly tone, it was okay with me.

First time director and writer Billy Morrissette will always hold that special place in my heart at the tough guy in Pump up the Volume. He is defiantly a fun director who has a nice visual sense. I liked how the film may have been set in the 70's and yet also felt like it could have been happening in present day. Many lesser films would have felt like the characters were at a 70's party and not like real people living at the time.

I also liked the look of the press conference as they drove in the convertible. It's was just a beautiful sequence right before the dam breaks. It pretty powerful stuff.

Scotland PA is not a brilliant reworking of the MacBeth story, but it's fun, vibrant, and Tierney and Walken are worth and hour and forty minutes. I only wish the rest of of the cast were up to snuff. All in all I recommend this movie.

SCOTLAND PA is well worth a visit.

I really didn't get the "Duncan Donuts" gag until I sat down to write this brief review. It's that kind of movie, I guess: it is smarter than you think, but in ways that aren't necessarily very illuminating to the core of the drama.

This take on Shakespeare's MacBeth is both lightweight and light on its feet. It doesn't take itself very seriously but it takes what it wants from the material and spins it into an unexpected and hard to categorize movie. Think "Dazed and Confused" meets the Bard and you're getting pretty close to the mark, but it's campier than that, not as heartfelt, more smart-alecky. There's a little Twin Peaks bound up in the recipe, as well.

Though the material is not as well-crafted as, say, "Shakespeare in Love", the sloppy, homemade quality almost becomes its central aesthetic. It feels like something you'd dream up on a Friday night sitting around a hookah with your best friends, and by Saturday morning nobody could remember quite what you were talking about.

Even though the film utterly lacks the air of serious drama that one normally expects in a rendition of a Shakespearian tragedy, one can't help but wonder if the slapdash charms of this production might not actually lie closer to what versions Shakespeare himself might have seen produced at the Globe...rowdy, loose, untamed entertainment that races from one side of the stage to the other without pausing to ask what its all about.

The trouble with watching the Sundance Channel is that you can get horribly depressed. So many of the films are dark, forbidding noir that the channel comes with free coupons for Pfizer products. However, I caught Scotland, PA, and I gotta tell ya, I LOVED this flick.

The director asked himself, "What would MacBeth be like if it was set in a fast-food restaurant?" No, really. On paper it sounds like an insane idea, and I tuned in mostly out of curiosity. I was quickly delighted by this turn of fancy, which turns one of the uglier Shakespeare plays into an offbeat comedy. James LeGros plays Joe "Mac" McBeth, a downtrodden assistant manager of a hamburger joint, who can't get ahead because of the owner's vapid sons. His long-suffering wife, played by the wonderful Maura Tierney (E.R.), presses him to plot to get ahead and then rob the owner, Mr. Duncan (get out your Cliff Notes, kids). They wind up killing him by knocking him face-first into the frier, and Mrs. McBeth winds up getting a significant burn on her hand. And so the intrigue begins. Malcolm, the lead idiot son of Duncan, practically gives the stand to the McBeths, and they are a rousing success, living high off the hog (or the cow, in this case) until Christopher Walken appears as Detective McDuff, a vegetarian cop investigating the death of Duncan. Walken does an hysterically funny parody of himself, as if he's the only character in the movie who's in Twin Peaks. The prophetic witches get a makeover that is both weird, funny and strangely appropriate. I won't tell you any more, but trust me, for once I'm being serious when I say that you should tune in Sundance for this movie, or ask your video rental store to get it. The direction, acting, locations and deadly earnest commitment to the lunacy make it an entertaining movie for anyone to watch. Those who know the play will be rolling on the floor. And as much as I like Tom Stoppard and love Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, this movie is far more accessible. I hope we see more work like this from Billy Morrissette, the director.

Once again, Shakespeare is afforded a cinematic, contemporary rendering in `Scotland, Pa.,' written for the screen and directed by Billy Morrissette, an updated version of the tragedy, `Macbeth,' which here becomes a black comedy of tragic proportions. Morrissette jumps on the bandwagon that began in 1996 with Baz Luhrmann's `William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet,' which was followed by further spins on the bard's plays, including Julie Taymor's energetic and imaginative `Titus' in ‘99 and Michael Almereyda's dreadful and dreary `Hamlet' in 2000. Morrissette's offering-- which differs from the others in that it does not retain the Shakespearian language and verse-- falls somewhat beneath Luhrmann and Taymor's films, but far above Almereyda's dismal effort, which was a tragedy in ways that transcended the story. Be advised, this one is a `black comedy' in every sense of the definition, and actually comes in on the absolute `darkest' end of the spectrum. There's no getting around it, `Macbeth' is a depressing story to begin with, and this version decidedly captures the spirit of the play that inspired it.

This story begins with a look at businessman Norm Duncan (James Rebhorn), who after selling his successful donut shops (`Duncan' Donuts, anyone?) has established a hamburger stand, which due in no small part to the innovative ideas of employee Joe McBeth (James LeGros) and the support of Joe's wife, Pat McBeth (Maura Tierney)-- also an employee of Duncan's-- has become a successful enterprise, as well as a harbinger of a chain of fairly well-known burger stands that start with `M' and today enjoy the lion's share of the fast-food market. And now Norm has come up with his best idea yet, one that's going to take the simple burger stand into the future and put Duncan's at the top of the heap.

It's a grand scheme alright, and Norm graciously shares his intentions with his best employees, Joe and Pat. But there's a rub; the idea was originally Joe's, and Norm's taking the credit does not sit too well with the McBeth's, who envision a hamburger joint of their own, `McBeth's,' sitting beneath the huge arches formed by the big red `M' of the sign that stands above the entrance to the restaurant. And the whole business goes south very quickly, as `Norm's' idea leads a seething Joe and Pat down a path that must necessarily end in murder and mayhem if their plan is, in fact, acted upon. And is it? For the answer to that, one must look no further than the source material, and keep in mind the term, `tragedy.'

Billy Morrissette's is an interesting and fairly imaginative presentation, but in staying true to the essence of the play it takes you, finally, to a very dark place. And even though he supplies a rather amusing ending infused with shrouded irony, be advised, this one's a downer; and it may seem something of a contradiction in terms, but it's going to make you laugh in spite of yourself. And you'll hate yourself in the morning because of it.

Still, there's no denying that this is a clever, if just short of inspired, piece of filmmaking. The single drawback is the casting of LeGros in the lead role; he does a decent job, even acceptable by most standards, but he lacks the screen presence and charisma to really sell it. The part of Joe called for someone like Thomas Jay Ryan, who was so riveting in Hal Hartley's `Henry Fool' in 1998, a film which coincidentally featured another actor who could've pulled this part off successfully, and who happens to have a small, but pivotal role in this film, Kevin Corrigan.

Corrigan, a terrific character actor and unsung veteran of a number of indy films, in this one plays Anthony `Banco' Banconi, a co-worker and friend of the McBeth's who significantly figures into the tragedy as it ultimately plays out. Corrigan has the talent and just the kind of charismatic screen presence the role of Joe called for, and it's too bad that Morrissette and casting director Avy Kaufman didn't recognize the possibility that was right in front of them.

They did strike gold, however, with the casting of Tierney as Pat McBeth. She has a naturally endearing screen presence and expressive eyes that can speak volumes, which she uses to great effect here. And, as she's demonstrated since becoming an integral member of the cast of TV's `ER,' she plays extremely well to her `dark' side, which is precisely what the role of Pat called for. Needless to say, she does it quite well, turning in an altogether convincing and entirely believable performance.

Another actor who plays so well to his dark side, Christopher Walken, does a solid turn here as Lt. Ernie McDuff, the investigator probing the shady goings-on at Duncan's hamburger stand. In any role, Walken has a subtle, commanding presence, and this is no exception; here, though, he lends something of a light touch to the proceedings that is nevertheless in keeping with the seriousness of the story. Suffice to say, he does black comedy well. And, without question, it is Walken who `makes' the final shot of the film.

The supporting cast includes Tom Guiry (Malcolm Duncan), Andy Dick (The Hippie Jesse), Amy Smart (The Hippie Stacy), Timothy `Speed' Levitch (The Hippie Hector), Geoff Dunsworth (Donald Duncan), John Cariani (doing a hilarious turn as Ed the Cop), Nate Crawford (Robert/Richard) and Timothy Durkin (Frank the Pharmacist). It may not be especially memorable, but `Scotland, Pa.' is just quirky enough to be a worthwhile entry in the Put-A-Spin-On-Shakespeare festival, currently playing on a DVD or video near you.