Grand Theft Hamlet

A making-of film fueled by the chaos of a plan gone wrong, Grand Theft Hamlet is equal parts charming and cheesy—both due to its experimental setting.

Grand Theft Hamlet excels at blurring the line between low and high art.

At its best when incorporating text from the play with oddly appropriate gameplay. The intoning of Hamlet’s best-known soliloquy over footage of a bar in the game’s skid row really does look like something from a straight-up indie film of the play.

... What ultimately stays with you is the actor duo’s commendable ability to find inspiration and poetic gravitas in silliness, horseplay and tomfoolery, even (and especially) in the darkest of times.

Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls’ feature co-directorial debut is a riotously funny, unexpectedly poignant ode to gaming, Shakespeare, the indestructible nature of art, and the benefits of befriending bazooka wielding extraterrestrials.

For me, Oosterveen’s bewildered voice sounds very much like Simon Jones as Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and I mean it as the highest possible praise when I say Douglas Adams would have loved this film. I certainly did.

The most memorable moments are, of course, those that are completely unplanned. It's fun to get lost in the spontaneity of jumping without a safety net.

Grand Theft Hamlet is an explosion of heart amid a backdrop of machine gun fire.

The film leans heavily into the absurdity of its premise: watching a player-controlled Danish prince deliver his “to be or not to be” soliloquy while an in-game cop car smashes into the scene is a unique kind of hilarity.

Grand Theft Hamlet is a fun and perceptive film about the drive to create by whatever means, even virtual ones, are available.