The setting is virtually perfect, but it's a mystery why Almereyda refused to update the dialog along with the setting and attitude. It leaves characters unable to refer to things like job titles (the king, eh?), video cameras, guns and office buildings--you have to make a wink-wink leap, which is very clever but more than a little tiring. Otherwise the story has real power--if anything it's too heavy, without much everyday-life relief. There's not a weak performance in the cast, which is rare for Shakespeare on film! Murray is especially good, giving brilliant nuance to each scene. And Hawke and Schreiber are also excellent as angry, confused young men racing to their doom. Visually the film is riveting, using the setting with real style and emotion. But in the end it's the raw gut-punch of the story itself that makes the film (and any other Hamlet adaptation, for that matter) worth seeing.