The setting is New York City in the year 2000, providing an instant entree to a new generation of filmgoers. Hamlet is born of an alienation and angst not unfamiliar to young audiences. Denmark is not a kingdom but a huge corporation, and the ghost of his father appears to him on the terrace of his sterile metropolitan hotel. The famous 'to be or not to be' speech is delivered under the glare of fluorescent lights in the aisles of a video store. It seems as if once again, this version of the classic tragedy resonates with its true meaning: one man's youthful idealism destroyed by the knowledge of his world's corruption.