Hamlet Sequel Is an Outrageous Misfortune

Every year, one plucky independent film manages to capture the hearts, minds, and wallets of the American public and become a smash hit. In 2006, it was Little Miss Sunshine. In 2007, it was Juno. As for 2008? Well, one thing’s almost certain: it won’t be Hamlet 2.

That’s because Hamlet 2 isn’t inspirational or heartwarming, although, like the other films, it does revolve around a quirky outsider beating odds. Instead of an uplifting tale, though, Hamlet 2 offers an only sometimes-winning satire of that genre—specifically, the magic teacher sub-category exemplified by Dead Poets Society.

British comedian Steve Coogan plays Dana Marschz (don’t wonder how to pronounce it, since no two people in the movie say his name the same way), a wannabe actor whose greatest and only screen credits are a stint on Xena and a commercial for herpes medication. To pay the bills, Dana teaches drama at a rough public high school in Tucson, Arizona. But when budget cuts threaten to shut down his department, Dana decides to save his job by putting on an original production—a phantasmagoric sequel to Shakespeare’s most famous play involving time travel, light saber battles, and a subtext about Dana’s “troubled relationship with my [his] father.” Wacky scenes involving epic rehearsals and an ensemble cast that includes Amy Poehler as an ACLU lawyer and Elizabeth Shue as herself ensue.

Often, it doesn’t matter that screenwriters Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady have decided to aim at easy targets like the lameness of high school drama and crazy, evangelical Christians, because many of their gags work. A running joke involving Dana’s animosity toward his archenemy, a 14-year-old drama critic for the school paper, is among the funniest in the movie.

Sometimes, though, Fleming and Brady try too hard, and their film suffers as a result. Hamlet 2 is at its best when at its silliest—when, say, Jeremy Irons is reciting a voice-over about how Tucson is “where dreams go to die,” and Dana is directing a low-budget stage adaptation of Erin Brockovich. It’s worst when it’s relying on dusty slapstick or trying to be edgy. Its climactic scene, a number in the play-within-the-movie called “Rock Me Sexy Jesus,” is the lamest attempt at being controversial since Katy Perry’s loathsome “I Kissed a Girl.” It’s a shame that both songs are so catchy.

There’s also a mean streak running through Hamlet 2 that sometimes makes it difficult to enjoy. Dana is a painfully, almost irredeemably pathetic character—he’s a former alcoholic who rollerblades to school and can’t get Bree, his sharp-tongued wife (Catherine Keener, largely wasted in a small, unnecessarily cruel role) pregnant. When he falls off the wagon in the last third of the film, it’s unbearably sad—and not in a funny way. Coogan gives the performance all he has, but it’s difficult to laugh at someone for whom you feel such strong pity.

Hamlet 2 doesn’t aspire to be anything more than it is—a send-up of the well-worn territory trod by many movies before it. In that sense, the film largely succeeds, even if it’s neither as funny nor as shocking as it tries to be.

Hamlet 2 is directed by Andrew Fleming. It is showing at AMC Lowes Lincoln Square at Broadway and 67th Street.