Review Roundup: MACBETH Premieres at Cannes Film Festival, Starring Michael Fassbender

A new feature film adaptation of William Shakespeare's bloody tragedy MACBETH starring international superstars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and the critics have already weighed in.

The new take on the Bard's classic story of war, power, murder and guilt is lensed by Justin Kurzel, with a script by Jacob Koskoff and Todd Louiso, adapted from the original Shakespeare play.

Fassbender stars as Macbeth, with Cotillard as Lady MacBeth and the rest of the cast filled out by Sean Harris as MacDuff and Paddy Considine as Banquo as well as David Thewlis, Jack Reynor and Elizabeth Debicki in featured roles. Click here for production photos!

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Robbie Collin, The Telegraph: After seeing Fassbender and Cotillard in these roles, the thought of ever seeing anyone else play them fades into irrelevance. Fassbender makes Macbeth a totally plausible despot, bringing him roaring out of the shadows of his often-more dominant wife. Yet Fassbender makes his character's hunger for power feel entirely human, and perhaps even a little perversely noble, though his sanity ebbs away.

Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter: Cotillard nails the character's final, "out damn spot" monologue with a display of cracked sanity and despair that will surely reap this already much admired actress further awards recognition. Fassbender's turn may be only fractionally less impressive because the audience knows that English is already his first language, even if famously he's also fluent in his father-tongue German. His Scottish accent is a bit wobbly in places, but that's nitpicking when you consider how much else he brings to the role - swagger, a credible military-man's mien and layers of self-doubt that rupture the cocky, tyrannical surface by degrees once he's grabbed the crown.

Guy Lodge, Variety: The wait for another may be even longer after Justin Kurzel's scarcely improvable new adaptation: Fearsomely visceral and impeccably performed, it's a brisk, bracing update, even as it remains exquisitely in period. Though the Bard's words are handled with care by an ideal ensemble, fronted by Michael Fassbender and a boldly cast Marion Cotillard, it's the Australian helmer's fervid sensory storytelling that makes this a Shakespeare pic for the ages - albeit one surely too savage for the classroom.

Kaleem Aftab, IndieWire: Ultimately, though, the narrative innovation and stylized images lead the compelling adaptation to fall on its sword. When the battle ends and the story settles down into a tale of reckless ambition involving the relationship between Macbeth and his Lady, the scenes lack substance. The trouble is that by having a strong man and grieving, traumatized woman as the principle couple, Kurzel doesn't leave room to explain their coupling. It never seems convincing that Macbeth would do anything for his wife, or that she has the capacity to manipulate him.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: As Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard are a dream-team pairing, actors who radiate charisma, perhaps more charisma than can be entirely absorbed into the fabric of the film. As ever, Cotillard is able to convey enormous amounts with her face without saying a word. Fassbender is arguably less good with Macbeth's introverted vulnerability and self-questioning, but always effortlessly virile and watchable, responding to Macbeth's outbursts of anger and imperious paranoia.

Screen Daily: For all that Kurzel's vision is at heart an old-fashioned, sword-clashing blood-and-guts spectacle, he gives Macbeth a modern sensibility, presenting the Thane's actions as being provoked by the death of a child and the horrors of war (the well-staged battle and combat sequences, it must be noted, make Braveheart look like a trip to the spa).

Keep checking back as more reviews roll in!

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