Macbeth, Shakespeare retold, commonly referred to as macchief, is an modern retelling of the old classic by Shakespeare. The storyline is this. Joe Macbeth is Head Chef in an famous restaurant owned by celebrity chief Duncan. Whilst Duncan receives credit, award and fame for his amazing cooking Joe is in the kitchen making the food Duncan take credit for. Joe is a passonate and cheerful chief who’s inthusiastic about making the best food he can. One night, three binmen meet Joe and his friend and fellow chief Billy and tell them that the restaurant will win three Michelin stars and that Joe will own the whole place one day.
They also tell Billy that his sons are also in line to inherit. Just like in the original play their predictions start to come true as soon as the boys arrive back in the restaurant. Duncan drops by to tell them that the restruant have been awarded the coveted three stars, a privillage given to very few restruant in the world. He also tells Joe that his teenage son Malcolm will take over the restaurant when he’s old enough, but in the meantime joe is first in line to inherit the restrunat if something happens to him. Joe tells his wife Ella about everything.
Ella is ambitious but troubled, and urges Joe to continue his rapid rise through the ranks. If they kill Duncan, the restaurant kingdom which they’ve worked so hard for, will be all theirs… Spurred on by Ella, Joe kills Duncan and puts the blame on 2 robbers who raided the restruant. However him and ella was both haunted by the act they have committed. It is also at this stage that billy started to suspect Macbeth in duncans murder. Realizing that billy was on to him joe had billy killed too. However at this stage joe started to hallucinate and act wirdly causing maceduff, another chief in the kitchen, suspiscious.
Macbeth realised this as well and also planned Macduff to be murdered. The murderer then arrived at macduff’s house and killed hs whole family. However Macduff was spared since he was away at the time. Ella, being haunted by gulit at the murder of Duncan, walks to the rooftop and jump off. Wnen joe was informed of this his reply was that he felt nothing at the deathof his wife. Shortly after this Macduff arrives and after hearing Macbeth admit he has Macduff blood on his hand he grabs a knife and stabs Macbeth.
The movie ends with malcom who is now running the restruant meeting billies kid therefore possibly fulfilling how billi’s kid will one day inderit the restruant. The movie is a suspenseful thriller that manages to be intertaining and engaging while following the rough guideline of the original Macbeth. There are many things that I like about this film. I particularly liked how they descie to base their story in a kitchen since if you think about it a big kitchen is srt of like a kingdom with the head chief being the king and welding absolute authority and everyone else his subjects.
I also liked how they managed to link the film to the original Macbeth without being too constrained by it. Even though the setting of the two stories are completely different they still follow the same plot with the same characters in each roll. Inspite of this devotant following to the original story the film was turned into an exciting thriller with a great sense of suspense. I also loved the visual and audio aspects of the film. I loved billi’s ghost and how creepy and realistic it looked.
The audio aspect of the film, especially the music, is occasionally weird but strangely appropriate. The music especially manages to creat a great amount of suspense in the movie and really draws the viewer in However there are also some problems I have with the film. One of the problems is the pace of the film. You see Shakespearere told macbeth and the original macbeth follow the same storyline, but while the original macbeth has 4 hours to reach its final conclusion the retold version only has 1 and a half.
Hour in which to do this and as such all the plots and stories are a bit crammed in for my liking and certain parts of the plots are outright ignored. For example the film does not adequately explain how ella was driven to suvicide by gulit. I believe that macbeth, Shakespeare retold, is an excellent thriller which follows the rough storyline of the original macbeth in an modern setting. It is very engaging and entertaining to watch and it is an must watch for anyone who loves thriller or who is an great fan of Shakespeare