King Lear (2018 film)

• Duke of Albany marries Goneril.
• Duke of Cornwall marries Regan.
• King of France marries Cordelia.

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 91% based on 22 reviews, and an average rating of 7.67/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Led by dual mesmerizing performances from Sir Anthony Hopkins and Dame Emma Thompson and rounded out by a solidly stocked ensemble, this King Lear is a highly watchable adaptation."[6] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a normalized score of 76 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]

Sam Wollaston of The Guardian commended Hopkins' performance as Lear, deeming him "shouty, vulnerable and absolutely mesmerising" and wrote that "Shakespeare on television – a box it wasn't designed for and doesn't necessarily fit – isn't always successful. It only works if it's not just a play on the telly, but something in its own right, too, with its own identity. This one achieves that, with pace and modernity."[8] The Wall Street Journal's John Anderson also commended Hopkins' performance, writing that he enjoyed watching him "gnash his teeth, wail and go gloriously mad opposite one of the best supporting casts imaginable."[9]

Vulture's Matt Zoller Seitz praised the "terrific" cast and the story's sub-plots, writing "Eyre has cut the text to the bone, sometimes to its detriment, though the edits elevate the play's parallel, secondary story--the bastard Edmund (John McMillan) plotting against his father, the Earl of Gloucester (Jim Broadbent) and his half-brother Edgar (Andrew Scott)--in fascinating ways."[10] Hanh Nguyen of IndieWire wrote that the adaptation "starts to break down near the last third with a choppiness that takes a toll on the logic of the piece" but commended the performances and stated "Amazon's King Lear is by no means a definitive adaptation of what is arguably the Bard's finest tragedy, but it is a thrilling and entertaining one."[11]