--- title: "Coriolanus" year: 2011 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/coriolanus" fi1m_id: "coriolanus" imdb_id: "tt1372686" tmdb_id: 101173 wikidata_id: "Q1132978" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 76 critics_reviews: 18 published: "2026-09-22T20:57:09.724488+00:00" updated: "2026-09-22T20:57:34.809336+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Coriolanus (2011) Directed by Ralph Fiennes · 2h 03m · MPA R · Drama, Thriller ## Identity Coriolanus - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/coriolanus - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** coriolanus - **IMDb ID:** tt1372686 - **TMDB ID:** 101173 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1132978 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1372686/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/101173, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1132978 **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 76 from 18 reviews *In a sentence:* Rome moved to a bombed-out tower block, and the mother is still the most frightening thing in it > Ralph Fiennes puts Shakespeare’s least loved tragedy in fatigues and a rubble-strewn Balkan city, and it mostly holds. Barry Ackroyd’s handheld camera fights the verse as often as it helps it, but Vanessa Redgrave’s Volumnia is worth the evening on her own. ## Synopsis In a city calling itself Rome, in something like the present day, the people are queuing for grain and the government is keeping it back. General Caius Martius (Ralph Fiennes) despises them and says so to their faces, on camera. Two citizens, Tamora (Lubna Azabal) and Cassius (Ashraf Barhom), lead the protests. When the neighbouring Volsces, under Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler), attack, Martius leads the assault on their city of Corioles, fights Aufidius hand to hand, and comes home with fresh scars and a new name, Coriolanus. His mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) wants him made consul. His friend Menenius (Brian Cox) coaches him to go into the market and ask the people for their votes. The tribunes Sicinius (James Nesbitt) and Brutus (Paul Jesson) are waiting for him to refuse. ## Review *Coriolanus* is the Shakespeare tragedy that theatres leave in the drawer. Its hero is a soldier who despises the public and cannot be made to pretend otherwise; there is no ghost, no fool, almost no love story, and a great deal of arguing about grain. Ralph Fiennes, directing for the first time and playing the lead, has taken John Logan’s trimmed screenplay and moved the whole thing to a present-day city that looks like the Balkans a year after a war: concrete estates, checkpoints, riot shields, rolling news. The verse is kept. Most of it holds. The gamble is that men in fatigues can speak in pentameter without the audience laughing, and Fiennes wins it in his own performance first. His Martius has a shaved head, a scar running up into his scalp and a way of standing still while other people talk, as if waiting for them to finish so he can go back to work. He has been trained to do one thing superbly and is asked, on his return, to do the one thing he cannot: stand in a market and ask ordinary people to like him. Watching him try, the words snagging behind his teeth, we felt something close to pity. Barry Ackroyd shoots it as he shot [*The Hurt Locker*](https://film.one/film/the-hurt-locker), handheld and close, the camera jostled by whatever is nearest. In Corioles this is exactly right. The assault on the town is a room-to-room slog through a gutted block of flats, and when Martius finally meets Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) they fight with knives at a range where each can see the other’s fillings. We flinched, more than once, and we were grateful that Nicolas Gaster cuts it so we always know whose blade is where. Ilan Eshkeri’s score stays out of the fight and comes in afterwards, low and unresolved, for the walk home. Then Vanessa Redgrave arrives, and the film has its reason to exist. Her Volumnia wears a general’s dress uniform she has plainly never had to fight in, and she greets her wounded son by counting his scars, out loud, with satisfaction. It is a mother doing a stock-take. Redgrave plays every line as plain common sense, which frightens far more than shouting would, and in the two long scenes where she works on her son we sat forward and did not move. Jessica Chastain, as his wife Virgilia, is given almost nothing to say and does a great deal with watching. Brian Cox’s Menenius is the fixer who has eaten at every table in the city and knows what each one costs. The politics is where the modern dress pays off most and costs most. James Nesbitt and Paul Jesson play the tribunes Sicinius and Brutus as a pair of talk-radio populists in good suits, and the scene in which they coach the crowd on what to be angry about is the sharpest in the film. Lubna Azabal and Ashraf Barhom, as the two citizens who lead the protests, are given faces rather than a mob. But Fiennes also stages a television studio debate in blank verse, complete with newsreader and ticker, and the joke lands once and then keeps being made. The camera is the larger problem. Ackroyd’s jostle, which serves the war so well, fights the speeches. In the senate we wanted to hear a man think, and instead the frame kept twitching towards whoever moved. Gaster’s cutting in the middle third chops the manoeuvring so fine that we twice lost track of who was against whom, and we were bored for ten minutes at a stretch, which in a story about a coup is a failing. Ricky Eyres has built the senate as a council chamber under strip lighting, and Bojana Nikitović has put everyone in it in the same dark suit, so the faces are all that separate the factions. The camera does not stay on them long enough. The second half takes the play where the play goes, which we will not describe, except to say that Butler is better than we expected and that there is a late scene between mother and son that justifies the whole enterprise. As Shakespeare films go, this is closer in ambition to Richard Loncraine’s *Richard III* than in achievement. That film found a world for its play and let it breathe; this one keeps its hand on the play’s throat for 123 minutes. It is a 15 certificate and earns it inside the first half hour. Watch it for Redgrave, stay for the knife fight, and accept that the middle stretch asks more patience than it repays. *Fi1m score 74, published 22 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Coriolanus, and the praise settles in the same two places: Ralph Fiennes as director, in his first film, and Fiennes as the general himself. The reviews credit him with making Shakespeare’s language sound natural amid tanks and automatic weapons, and with setting the play in a Balkan-style war zone, with rolling-news inserts, without the update feeling like a stunt. Vanessa Redgrave’s Volumnia is singled out almost everywhere, with Brian Cox and Gerard Butler close behind, and the combat scenes are widely called shattering. The spread is narrow. No review is negative, and the two mixed notices still admire the acting. The reservations cluster around the handheld camerawork, which Slant Magazine finds a misstep and Time Out thinks falls short in the vérité action; The New Yorker finds the modern media touches forced, Variety struggles to follow the political manoeuvring, and Screen Daily notes second-act wordiness and an overlong finale. ## Straight answers **Is Coriolanus worth watching?** *Coriolanus* is worth watching if you can take Shakespeare's verse spoken by men in fatigues, and we scored it 74. Ralph Fiennes moves the play to a bombed-out modern city and mostly makes it hold, with Vanessa Redgrave's Volumnia the reason to see it. The middle third, chopped fine and shot with a restless camera, asks more patience than it repays. **How long is Coriolanus, and what is it rated?** *Coriolanus* runs 2h 03m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and thriller film. **Where can I watch Coriolanus in the US?** *Coriolanus* is streaming on Tubi, The Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $1.99. It leaves Tubi on 1 October. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Coriolanus, and is it suitable for children?** *Coriolanus* is a 15 certificate in the UK and earns it inside the first half hour, so it is not for children. The assault on Corioles is a room-to-room slog through gutted flats, and the knife fight between Martius and Aufidius is close enough to make us flinch. Older teenagers who can follow blank verse will manage; the squeamish should look away from the war scenes. **How does Coriolanus compare to The Hurt Locker?** *Coriolanus* borrows Barry Ackroyd's handheld camera from [*The Hurt Locker*](https://film.one/film/the-hurt-locker), and the earlier film is the better use of it. Bigelow's bomb disposal thriller follows one soldier who only knows how to work, and the jostle makes his danger clear; in Fiennes's Shakespeare the same camera serves the battle but fights the speeches. Choose *The Hurt Locker* for tension, *Coriolanus* for Redgrave and the verse. ### Reviews we read (18) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (A-): The critic commends the film as a brutal and bleak adaptation that uses a contemporary setting to accentuate Shakespeare's themes of politics, war, and class. It singles out Fiennes' intense performance as Coriolanus for capturing the character's emotional stuntedness and commitment to military honor. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/coriolanus-1798171204) - **Los Angeles Times**, Betsy Sharkey (85/100, inferred): Fiennes' ambitious directorial debut thrillingly updates the tragedy with operatic scale, gritty warfare, and standout performances from Redgrave, Cox, and others, making it memorable and prescient. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2011-dec-02-la-et-coriolanus-20111202-story.html) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (85/100, inferred): The critic calls Fiennes's directorial debut a triumph for reconfiguring the play as a study of modern warfare with news inserts. He singles out the film's clarity, intelligence, and shattering combat scenes along with careful narrative attention. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/feb/15/ralph-fiennes-coriolanus-film-review) - **Empire**, Angie Errigo (81/100, inferred): The critic finds Fiennes on firm footing with this political thriller and praises its assured direction and timely themes. She singles out the contemporary resonance in modern dress and Balkan-style war zones, along with strong performances from Redgrave and Butler. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/coriolanus-review/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Ray Bennett (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Fiennes' directorial debut for turning the Shakespeare play into a modern, bloody action picture with tanks and automatic weapons while keeping the original language natural. It highlights strong performances, especially by Fiennes, Redgrave, Cox, and Butler, calling it a tough, violent, and moving tragedy. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/coriolanus-99884/) - **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (80/100, inferred): Fiennes delivers a thrilling performance as the title character in his directorial debut, bringing fierce intensity to the modernized Shakespearean tragedy set amid contemporary warfare and political intrigue. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/movies/ralph-fiennes-and-vanessa-redgrave-in-coriolanus-review.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Nick Schager (3/4): The critic finds the Paul Greengrass-style handheld camerawork a misstep that fails to enhance the material, but praises the fidelity to Shakespeare's prose and the central performances, especially Redgrave's titanic Volumnia and Fiennes' fiery intensity, along with the enduring themes of class and duty. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/coriolanus/) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (75/100, inferred): Fiennes' intense, gory adaptation captures the play's drive and desperation through strong performances, particularly Redgrave as Volumnia, though some modern media elements feel forced. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/23/loyalty-oaths) - **Screen Daily**, Lee Marshall (70/100, inferred): Fiennes’s impressive debut vindicates the play as a complex character study full of contemporary relevance through its modern Balkan setting and news-channel framing, with strong casting and performances. The film has second-act wordiness and an overlong finale but remains a worthy, good-looking addition to Shakespeare adaptations. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/coriolanus/5023781.article) - **Sight and Sound**, David Jays (70/100, inferred): Fiennes’s bold modern adaptation makes a strong fist of the material with intelligent choices and a documentary-style atmosphere, though the astringent play stays somewhat at arm’s length. The critic highlights the intense performances, especially Redgrave’s adamantine mother and the homoerotic tension in combat scenes. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/6770) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (70/100, inferred): Fiennes' bloody directorial debut updates the tragedy effectively in action sequences with strong visuals and cast, though political intrigue can be hard to follow. [Read](https://variety.com/2011/film/markets-festivals/coriolanus-1117944611/) - **Time Out**, Trevor Johnston (3/5): This ferocious 21st-century update marks a committed directorial debut that keeps the themes relevant and witty despite the modernity; Fiennes attacks the role with vivid urgency while Redgrave and Cox deliver standout turns. The director falls short on some vérité action sequences but knows when to let the actors rip. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/coriolanus) - **The Playlist**, The Playlist Staff (B+): The critic calls it a remarkable directorial debut with standout performances from Fiennes, Redgrave, and others, plus effective use of film techniques for intimacy and visuals. It notes the challenging nature of the play itself, with performances and direction often outshining the material as a whole. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/review-the-ralph-fiennes-directed-coriolanus-is-as-well-acted-as-it-is-challenging-20111201/) - **Paste**, Annlee Ellingson (8.9): Ralph Fiennes makes a bold directorial debut with this contemporary adaptation that strikes a delicate balance between Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter and an ultra-modern plot and setting. The critic singles out the gritty, documentary-style battle scenes that juxtapose realistic handheld camerawork with erudite monologues for special praise. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/coriolanus) - **Digital Spy**, Ben Rawson-Jones (80/100, inferred): Fiennes' impressive directorial debut modernizes the tragedy with ferocious intensity and thematic potency, delivering a compelling character study through strong performances and effective handheld camerawork that creates documentary-like immediacy. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a361063/coriolanus-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Owen Van Spall (3.5/5): The critic commends the strong performances, particularly Redgrave and Cox, the stripped-down script that keeps pacing tight, and the effective modern visuals and editing that make the themes accessible. The modern setting ultimately enhances rather than obscures the study of power and authority. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/coriolanus-film-review-by-owen-van-spall) - **HeyUGuys**, Adam Lowes (3.5/5): The critic praises the powerhouse performances, especially Fiennes and Redgrave, and the gritty cinematography that adds intimacy and urgency. It notes the film is watchable but unlikely to rank among the best Shakespeare adaptations. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/coriolanus-review/) - **The Skinny**, Nicola Balkind (★★★): Fiennes' ambitious directorial debut is a grim, gritty modern adaptation of the lesser-known Shakespeare play, using news-style inserts to draw contemporary parallels while delivering measured language amid austere visuals. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/coriolanus) ## Details - **Director:** Ralph Fiennes - **Director:** Ralph Fiennes - **Screenplay:** John Logan - **Cinematography:** Barry Ackroyd - **Editor:** Nicolas Gaster - **Music:** Ilan Eshkeri - **Production design:** Ricky Eyres - **Costume design:** Bojana Nikitović - **Producer:** Julia Taylor-Stanley, Gabrielle Tana, John Logan - **Cast:** Ralph Fiennes as Caius Martius Coriolanus; Gerard Butler as Tullus Aufidius; Lubna Azabal as First Citizen (Tamora); Ashraf Barhom as Second Citizen (Cassius); Jessica Chastain as Virgilia; Vanessa Redgrave as Volumnia; James Nesbitt as Tribune Sicinius; Brian Cox as Menenius - **Runtime:** 2h 03m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 19 January 2012 - **Genres:** Drama, Thriller - **Budget:** $8 million - **Box office:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsYrGIQnmxo ## Where to watch in the US - Tubi: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: rent $1.99, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $5.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-22.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, ES, GB, IE, IN, IT, MX, NZ, PA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - BAFTA Film Awards 2012: Best Newcomer (nominated) - British Independent Film Awards 2011: Best Supporting Actress (won) - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture 2011: Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Richard III* (1995): Shakespeare in 1930s fascist dress, with Ian McKellen enjoying every syllable of the villainy - *Throne of Blood* (1957): Kurosawa’s Macbeth in fog and armour, where the ambitious wife is the real terror - *Titus* (1999): Julie Taymor’s Titus Andronicus, louder and stranger than this, with Anthony Hopkins carving - *Chimes at Midnight* (1965): Orson Welles as Falstaff, and a muddy battle nobody has bettered on film - *The Hurt Locker* (2008), Fi1m 86: Ackroyd’s camera in the war it was made for, following one man who only works — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-hurt-locker.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/coriolanus