Scotland, PA

"Scotland, PA" is a dark comic retelling of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth," set in rural Pennsylvania sometime at the height of the 1970s. No one involved makes any attempt to disguise the story's origins; if the immediate mention of names like Duncan, Malcolm and McBeth (thus misspelled) doesn't raise a red flag, the credit "Story by William Shakespeare" will remove all doubt. But while that credit does the job of sparking a laugh, there's something wrong with it. Shakespeare didn't write the story of "Macbeth" at all; he took it from Scottish history, lurid repeated bloodspillings and all. It is not the story but the language in "Macbeth" that elevates it to the realm of great literature.

In his rewriting, Billy Morrissette (who also directed) jettisons all the language, as it would jar exceedingly to hear it from out of the mouths of these moronic twentieth-century civilians. Presumably, he thought to substitute comedy for the pathos that is lost when one loses Big Willie's words. But, as the film goes on, it becomes obvious that he not only wants his comedy but his pathos too. Given that the comedy becomes increasingly dependent on reflexive 70s jokes and the pathos stems from the dilemmas of people we were being encouraged to laugh at earlier in the film, "Scotland, PA" ends up ensuring its own ignominous downfall.

At first, it seems as though some outstanding performances will simply drag the film to glory, missteps or no. James LeGros takes the starring role as Joe McBeth, known to all as "Mac," and plays it with such a combination of unbridled resentment and blank-eyed passivity that you're reminded of the original character no matter how inarticulate Mac is. The blank-eyed passivity becomes a comic asset given Mac's slithering, voracious wife Pat, played by Maura Tierney of "ER" fame. Her methods of persuasion - promises of titillating sex after bloody deeds - give new dimensions to the old knotty question of exactly how much M(a)cbeth is interested in killing of his own accord.

Both are supremely committed to the fast-food milieu, which makes for several good scenes, particularly those involving their boss Norm Duncan (James Rebhorn), who nurses an overriding passion for his restaurant, Duncan's. Mac thinks fast food is where it's at, but he just needs to get some new equipment in there, and give the restaurant a new owner and a new name...

Up until Duncan goes to the takeout window in the sky, "Scotland, PA" is immensely entertaining. But Morrissette's attention to the McBeths and the drama wanders, and so does the film. The numerous fast-food jokes, including the expected visual pun of "McBeth's" orange arches, are only pallidly funny the first time around and then descend into numbing unfunniness. As Pat becomes richer and richer due to her husband's treachery, Tierney dons increasingly outlandish 70s outfits to express her personality, as Morrissette gives us precious little time with Pat as the plot thickens.

Much of the film is taken up with little sidetracks - a moronic small-town sherriff, Malcolm as a hard rocker and Donald as an extremely closeted teen, Anthony "Banko" Banconi as a hard drinker - that never go anywhere but take up a lot of time nonetheless. Finally, LeGros has some severe trouble taking the little hints Morrissette drops about his motivation and turning it into an actual justification for his late actions; the extent to which LeGros succeeds is entirely due to his labors, but we miss the Immortal Bard badly here.

It would be a bit too glib to call "Scotland, PA" a tale told by an idiot; there's a certain frisson to the plotnapping for the first thirty minutes, and the assembled cast never stops giving its all. But if you're going to mine a tragedy for dark comedy, the result had better be either funny or tragic. "Scotland, PA" is too little of either, and so what you see before you isn't much more than a waste of time.

Comedies Home

Movie Reviews Home

Spam-O-Matic Home