This ponderous, heavy-handed version of King Lear almost makes me think it's best left to the Americans.
My Kingdom (2002)
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Reviews Counted:19
Fresh:6
Rotten:13
Average Rating:4.8/10
Consensus: Overstuffed and unrealistic, My Kingdom may be worth seeing if only for Richard Harris' typically fine performance.
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: The late Richard Harris's final film, MY KINGDOM, takes place in the gritty underworld of modern-day Liverpool. Inspired by Shakespeare's KING LEAR, Harris stars as Sandeman, the head of a... The late Richard Harris's final film, MY KINGDOM, takes place in the gritty underworld of modern-day Liverpool. Inspired by Shakespeare's KING LEAR, Harris stars as Sandeman, the head of a prominent crime ring. After the brutal murder of Sandeman's long-loyal wife (Lynn Redgrave) the aging gangster decides to give up his fortune and divide his "kingdom" between his three daughters. However, Jo (Emma Catherwood), his youngest and favored daughter, is a reformed drug addict trying to lead a straight and narrow life and she promptly refuses any part of the family business. This leaves the inheritance to her two scheming sisters, Kath (Louise Lombard), a madam at a bondage club, and Tracy, (Lorraine Pilkington) the owner of a Liverpool soccer team. Together with their husbands (Paul McGann and Jimi Mistry), the sisters turn their backs on Sandeman and devise a plot to overthrow his powerful reign of Liverpool's working class drug trade. Like a fallen king, Sandeman is left with no one except his young grandson (Reece Noi), and together they wander the harsh city streets of wintry Liverpool. Richard Harris gives a stunning performance that is sure to be remembered for its enduring spirit and fine sense of tragedy. [More]
Starring: Richard Harris, Lynn Redgrave, Tom Bell, Aidan Gillen
Starring: Richard Harris, Lynn Redgrave, Tom Bell, Aidan Gillen, Louise Lombard, Paul McGann, Jimi Mistry, Lorraine Pilkington, Colin Salmon, David Yip, Emma Catherwood
Director: Don Boyd
Director: Don Boyd
Screenwriter: Don Boyd
Story: William Shakespeare
Producer: Gabriele Bacher, Neil Weisman
Composer: Simon Fisher Turner, Deirdre Gribbin
Studio: First Look
Reviews for My Kingdom
Leading man Harris and director Boyd are still capable of invigorating British cinema with style and flair.
The plot is very clever, but Boyd weighs it down with too many characters and events, all intertwined and far too complicated to keep track of.
Neither an effective gangland thriller nor an achieved elegy for a lord undone.
Boyd's screenplay (co-written with Guardian hack Nick Davies) has a florid turn of phrase that owes more to Guy Ritchie than the Bard of Avon.
The film lost me, and the sad twists of unrealistic mumbo jumbo crescendoing into pure mayhem ruined what could have been a thespian delight.
Whereas last year's exemplary Sexy Beast seemed to revitalize the British gangster movie, this equally brutal outing merely sustains it.
We spend so much time trying desperately to get everything straight in our minds that the raw punch of the material passes us by.
A baffling subplot involving smuggling drugs inside Danish cows falls flat, and if you're going to alter the Bard's ending, you'd better have a good alternative.
Without Shakespeare's eloquent language, the update is dreary and sluggish.
Harris commands the screen, using his frailty to suggest the ravages of a life of corruption and ruthlessness.
Suffice it to say that Shakespeare's sudden and violent ending doesn't translate well into a British crime drama.
Harris’s performance is one for the ages, but the others are also up to his mark.
Gaunt, silver-haired and leonine, [Harris] brings a tragic dimension and savage full-bodied wit and cunning to the aging Sandeman.
Watching Harris ham it up while physically and emotionally disintegrating over the course of the movie has a certain poignancy in light of his recent death, but Boyd's film offers little else of consequence.
The cast reigns supreme, especially Harris, whose regal presence as the aging emperor of gangland grounds the story even as it suffers from narrative overload.
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