Henry IV, Part 1 (2012)

theguardian.com

The next king getting the spotlight in The Hollow Crown is Henry IV, a.k.a. Richard’s cousin Bolingbroke.  Really, both of these plays focus more on Prince Hal (and his buddy Falstaff) than on Henry, but he’s the one with his name in the title, so there you go.

 

After the extraordinary Richard II, this one was a bit of a letdown – a mere 9 out of 10 instead of 27 out of 10.  Still, it’s no slouch, and there’s a lot to like.  The best sequences, predictably, follow Tom Hiddleston’s Hal and Simon Russell Beale’s Falstaff.  The dirty, noisy public house they frequent is well-drawn, and the humor in these scenes is sharp and lively.  When it comes to Shakespeare, comedy can seem a little less accessible than drama, but the ribbing between Hal and his friends comes off naturally.

 

I could probably spend an entire post raving about Tom Hiddleston’s knack for Shakespeare, and his Hal is really terrific.  It’s maybe not as arresting as Ben Whishaw’s Richard, but there’s a natural ease to his performance that makes the Elizabethan dialogue seem effortless.  He’s funny and charming as the rakish young prince – despite the drinking, women, and petty larceny, you root for him to get his act together – and his big confrontation with his father shows a much more determined side of him.

 

Jeremy Irons plays Henry as a somber king who’s aged greatly beneath his heavy crown.  After enjoying Rory Kinnear’s performance so much in Richard II, it’s a little hard to embrace him.  It tends to be rough when you get to know a young character and then jump forward significantly in time; I think of The Kite Runner or The Reader as stories that definitely lose something when they shift the narrative ahead.  It’s sad to think that Bolingbroke has become this old man, but I suppose that speaks to the effectiveness of Jeremy Irons’s performance.  Once again, his major scene with Hal is a standout.  His cavorting, devil-may-care heir is such a disappointment to him that he wishes Hotspur, the brash young man spearheading a bloody campaign against him, could be his son instead, and he lays into Hal in a serious way.

 

We’ve entirely replaced the Richard II cast, but most of these actors will carry over to part 2.  Simon Russell Beale is a fun Falstaff, and I really enjoy the interactions between Hotspur (Joe Armstrong, unfamiliar to me but very good) and his wife (played by Lady Mary Crawl- I mean, Michelle Dockery.)  Also featured are David Dawson, who was great in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Shameless’s Maxine Peake, and Ron Weasley’s mum Julie Walters.  A couple more Who faces pop up, too:  Harry Lloyd (“Human Nature” / “The Family of Blood”) and Robert Pugh (“The Hungry Earth” / “Cold Blood,” plus Torchwood’s “Adrift.”)

 

The direction is the weak link here.  Richard Eyre zippers certain scenes together, rushes through others, and seems at a loss with how to film the soliloquys – he sometimes has his actors looking directly into the camera and twice commits the cardinal sin of tossing speeches into voiceover.  After Rupert Goold’s lovely work in Richard II, the shortcomings are really noticeable.

 

Warnings

 

Include battle scenes in the violence here.  Tons of drinking and more than a little lasciviousness.

 

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The scene with the Lannister twins on last night's Game of Thrones was just awful.  I'd been excited for the start of season 4, because I wanted to see how Jaime's one-step-forward, twelve-steps-back brand of redemption would fare once he was back in Cersei's orbit.  Guess I have my answer now - just awful.