Stung by the criticism of his epic version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, writer/director Kenneth Branagh decided to keep things on a smaller scale for his next project. The result is this chamber piece about a group of mismatched actors and dropouts staging a bizarre version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in a disused church. Alas, the end result is very self-indulgent, with more than passing similarities to An Awfully Big Adventure, which came out the same year. Branagh (who doesn't act in the film) claims as his inspiration the 'let's put a show on here' films of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, such as Babes on Broadway, but his efforts soon degenerate into nothing more than a lot of verbal sniping and sulking. On the acting front, Richard Briers is on the ball as an aged has-been, horrified at the thought of Queen Gertrude being played by pantomime dame Terry (John Sessions). The situation also gives him one of the best lines in a threadbare collection of luvvie in-jokes - 'Gertrude was not written as a shirt lifter! ' (KW)

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