Fiennes is after something else. Put simply, he puts "Coriolanus" into modern times so that we can see the story for what it is. Lifted from the context of an earlier age, the violence becomes violence, not historical tableau. And the family culture of Coriolanus, instead of seeming noble yet primitive, seems borderline crazy: He is the product of a magnetic and persuasive mother (Vanessa Redgrave) who values military success above all else - a rare sort of mom who is happy to hear that her son has been wounded, because it will add to his honor and political power.
Coriolanus is a monster of proficiency in armed combat, but he's unsuited to political life. The character's vanity and hair-trigger temper are built into the role. Fiennes brings out the emotions and motives underneath, how going through the motions in the public sphere is painful to him. Knowing the truth of the battlefield, he sees everything else as a lie - and he can't bring himself to become a liar.
Fiennes thrives under his own direction, but such is his sense of balance that everyone else thrives, too: Redgrave is scarily charming and rational, as Coriolanus' rock-ribbed mother. Brian Cox is the film's locus of probity and decency, as Rome's lone honest politician. Jessica Chastain brings a naturalness to Shakespeare's verse, as Coriolanus' young wife, and Gerard Butler makes the curious but effective choice of playing Coriolanus' chief military rival, Aufidius, as relaxed and engaging.
As a personality, Aufidius has everything that Coriolanus doesn't have - an inner ease and the love of his people. But as a general, so long as Coriolanus is alive, he will always be second best.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/02/DD0B1N1K8D.DTL#ixzz1lGr0PCZX
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