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SCOTLAND, PA. Send This Review to a Friend
If Shakespeare were to wake up and drop in on "Scotland, Pa." he might recognize the story-line. His "Macbeth" has been satirically appropriated and retold set in rural Pennsylvania in the 1970s with American prototypes comically locked in a power struggle that parallels the classic. Much of this concoction by writer-director Billy Morrissette is very funny, but it's a tall order to keep the humor flowing, as a little of this gimmick goes a long way and the exercise at times grows sophomoric.
But the send-up is amusing a good part of the way. In this case, the battle isn't over power in Scotland but over a fast-food joint called Duncan's. After the owner Norm Duncan (James Rebhorn) is done in by a conspiracy between his employee Joe McBeth (James LeGross) and Joe's ambitious wife Pat (Maura Tierney), the place is re-named McBeth's--no surprise there.
The low-brow characters are a funny lot, particularly Christopher Walken as the investigating detective Ernie McDuff. Walken does some scene-stealing with his line delivery and body language, and whenever he's on screen the film gets a needed lift. One can easily pinpoint the various plot and character similarities with the Bard's original, and that's part of the fun. So is the violence, which gets amusingly ghoulish.
Credit the creators with plenty of ingenuity in carrying out their wild idea, but even a good comic notion can run out of laughs, as this one frequently does. A Lot 47 Films release.
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