Movie Review: Grand Theft Hamlet

During the COVID-19 pandemic, British actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen spent a lot of time hanging out in the video game Grand Theft Auto Online. One day, while tooling around in the game’s massive spoof of Los Angeles, they stumble upon its version of the Hollywood Bowl and wonder if it would be possible to actually stage a play there. Given the nature of the gameplay going on around them, they understand that the idea seems ludicrous, but since they are stuck at home all day due to lockdown, they decide to give it a go anyway.

What follows is their bizarrely engrossing attempt to put a production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet together that will take place live entirely within the game, for an audience that is also in the game (though limited by its concurrent player cap) as well as anyone who wants to see it streamed on YouTube and Twitch. Progress is fleeting as virtual gunfights are liable to break out around them at nearly every moment and real-world obligations get in the way, but they make it through casting and begin to rehearse, with their vision growing ever grander.

The creativity afforded them by the game allows for some truly bold takes on the material, though they also find themselves having to work around its limitations at times. The cast they manage to assemble is pretty impressive and has some insightful takes on the play and how it relates to their lives centuries after it was written. Combined with the conversations the performers have about their real-life problems like loneliness, unemployment, and video game addiction add several moments of surprising depth to the near-constant chaos going on around them.

While the Grand Theft Auto series is known for its callous violence and crude humor, its player base is also made up of real people from all walks of life around the world. People who have an interest in art, beauty, and human connection. This theme is demonstrated time and again as Oosterveen and Crane, along with Crane’s wife Pinny Grylls who is documenting everything, are pleasantly surprised by their encounters with strangers who take an interest in participating in or watching their bizarre but inspiring project. Having played the game myself I don’t think I would have expected it to be the basis for something so full of hope for humanity, but this unique, funny, touching, and wild little film has proved me wrong. It isn’t perfect, but it feels like it captures our times better than most other movies of this era. ★★★★