I finally got around to watching Henry IV! Hal/Harry/the Prince/Henry V is my favourite Shakespeare character and 1 Henry IV is my favourite Shakespeare play (I keep seeing people go: well, Henry IV isn't that good but... what what what) so I've been seriously looking forward to it. Hurrah, it was awesome.
The thing is, one of my personal heresies is that...I don't really like Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. AT ALL. His Harry is, idk, all emotive and shit. And sure, Branagh does a good job with the overflowing-with-feels thing, but it's not Harry. Not as I see him. Harry is more calculating, his (real) emotions more restrained and regulated.
This is someone who deliberately cultivates a poor reputation to lower expectations of his reign, so he can more easily exceed them. He sheds the drunken rascal to be "more myself"--a gracious, competent, deadly serious warrior-prince--with no trouble whatsoever, then puts the rascal back on when it's convenient. Even his rage over the tennis balls is very controlled, gradually escalating from "heheheheheh what a good joke" to an eloquent declaration of war.
(Or, to put it more concisely: you're a credit to Slytherin House, your Majesty.)
Hiddleston, though, I loved.Even at his most laughingly reckless, there's a sense of containment; we really see his emotional distance in the staging of the herein-shall-I-imitate-the-sun monologue. We see his real feeling bleeding through the disguise, too: the joking invective that starts to seem a little too sincere, the flickers of severity that grow more pronounced over time (notice how often he crosses himself--I particularly like the detail because RL Henry was known for his piety).
He has the right amount of charisma and a subtle dignity that morphs into full-blown kingly gravitas by the end. His impersonation of Jeremy Irons' Henry IV was just perfect--initially hilarious and then chilling. In general, I love how he manages to get across the emotion-beneath-the-mask without beating you over the head with it, until he finally breaks down at his father's apparent death. ;_; And his final rejection of Falstaff was amazing.
Now, this play is overwhelmingly about Hal for me (and I appreciated that it was framed that way), but there are other awesome things in it. Like Hotspur. It's so easy to play him as just this dimwit, but this Hotspur wasn't just rash but fierce and intense and skeptical, as he should be. His interactions with his uncle and father and Glendower were all great, but best, of course, were the handful of moments with his wife.
Hotspur and Lady Percy's interactions crackle even on the page, but this was just squee tempestuous, solid, totally functional passionate marriage ftw! Michelle Dockery was pretty much a joy whenever she appeared--a touch of sweetness you don't often get with the character, but all the fire too--and the two of them had all the chemistry. I kept being like "now kiss!" Definitely my favourite couple.
Jeremy Irons was wonderful--so much more presence than you usually get with the king, and easier to pity, too. John of Lancaster was exactly as I've always imagined him: sympathetic but chilly, very much Harry's brother. I actually really liked the Falstaff, though a lot of people don't seem to have--maybe it's that I don't like Falstaff himself, except as a character. Poins was good. Shallow was Mr Collins all over again, but it worked fine for him. The battle scenes were a bit obviously underfunded, but it general it looked great--especially the Eastcheap scenes. I like the bleak throne room, too, and the music. I'm not sure if it was actually medieval, but it sounded like it.
