“The film is extravagantly, mercilessly funny – never more so than in the rapid-fire verbal tennis match between the two protagonists... In this thrilling one-of-a-kind film, Stoppard revivifies an art rusting unused in movies: bringing words to life.”
Screened in tribute to Tom Stoppard (1937 - 2025)
Two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth), ramble through Elsinore Castle and its environs, blissfully unaware of their scripted lives. As the pair engage in an ongoing philosophical debate about free will versus predestination, they attempt to make sense of the peculiar goings on in the castle as the events of Hamlet unfold around them... Tom Stoppard adapted and directed his own play for the big screen, creating a post-modern comedy with brilliant performances from young Tim Roth and Gary Oldman and support from Richard Dreyfuss, Iain Glen, Ian Richardson and Joanna Miles.