This arty melodrama is not likely to make teenage America get down with Shakespeare.

This transferral of the tragedy of the Moor to a contempo American high school is something that never should have gone further than a class assignment to see if it could be made to work.

Hartnett never allows him to become a hissable villain, keeping Hugo shy of our sympathies, yet his every move is utterly believable.

Director Tim Blake Nelson and writer Brad Kaaya try to connect the movie to the ever-present dilemma of school violence, but in the process, they have stripped the Bard’s tale of its power.