Hamlet.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

Having firmly established himself as the logical heir to Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh continues to bring Shakespeare to the masses. Following his triumphant "Henry V," Branagh decided to pander to the American audience by throwing popular actors such as Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, and Keanu Reeves into "Much Ado About Nothing," amidst an otherwise classically trained British cast, with decidedly mixed results.

This four-hour version of "Hamlet," arguably the Bard's greatest play, continues the pattern of nontraditional casting, with even more eccentric choices. As talented and entertaining as Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Jack Lemmon have proven to be in the right vehicle, they are fishes out of water when attempting Shakespearean dialect, and Williams' distinctly fey courtier comes off more as an out-take from "The Birdcage" than high tragedy. Meanwhile, Charlton Heston's Player King is portentously mannered, and Gerard Depardieu's French accent, even in a cameo limited to a few monosyllabic lines, has no business being there at all.

This curmudgeonly quibbling aside, Branagh's "Hamlet" is a bold attempt to bring out the supernatural, psychosexual, and...