"To be, or not to be," Hamlet says in his best-known speech — questioning the value of life itself and, more immediately, his own. But surely, these words have rarely if ever been uttered with such an apparent death wish as when Riz Ahmed, our latest troubled prince, hurtles down a motorway in his BMW, gathering speed with each iamb. Talk about "shuffling off this mortal coil" — his hands are off the wheel, and he's in the wrong lane! His eventual demise, in director Aneil Karia's new "Hamlet," seems perilously premature — until he wisely stops the car. Because, as we know, there are many deaths to come before Hamlet's. Every screen adaptation has had to wrestle with where to place, physically, this most famous of speeches. Laurence Olivier intoned the words near a literal, cresting "sea of troubles." Kenneth Branagh stared into a mirror. Ethan Hawke notably did it in a Blockbuster aisle — his angst relatable to anyone who has trouble deciding on a movie. But Ahmed's version seems particularly apt for the actor's considerable talents, and is one of the more compelling moments of a pared-down, engaging if spotty rendering of the world's most famous play. Jittery, tense, fast-talking and always on edge, this is a Hamlet, above all, in a rush. He also inevitably recalls a Hamlet-like character who recently graced our small screens: Kendall Roy in "Succession." The setting, indeed, is so "Succession"-like, it hardly seems an accident. The film, adapted by Michael Lesslie, takes place in modern-day corporate London, centered on a wealthy real estate family in the South Asian community. The name of the family biz? No, not Roy. It's Elsinore, of course. We open with death, naturally. "Elsinore Property CEO Dead at 77," the headlines blare.... Read More