Then he embraces Ophelia and weeps, indicating he is sad because he knows that it is unlikely that he will ever have a normal relationship, given his enforced role as an avenger.
Of course, there are moments in the text where Hamlet does seem completely out of control, as in the case Hamlet's accidental homicide of Polonius, but Jacobi's performance underlines the wisdom and intelligence of Hamlet's character. When Jacobi's Hamlet does lash out, he reproaches himself for it, in body language as well as in his use of the text. Jacobi is never irrational. Even when at emotional extremes, he does not descend into a dissociative state. Hamlet still seems to have the most secure grip on reality of all the major characters: he sees the darkness of Denmark and the fact that he is likely doomed, and in this sense he is even more clear-eyed than his friend the scholarly Horatio.
Unlike Hamlet, Ophelia raves without a clear purpose -- when she does seek to communicate, as when she tells the Queen to wear rue "with a difference" she does not seem calculated and pointed in her use of words like Hamlet. Of course, certain 'differences' between the play and film are not really differences, but are dependent upon the actors' interpretations: Polonius is more crafty and sarcastic than foolish and unintentionally funny; Gertrude seems genuinely in love with Claudius. Despite Hamlet's biased opinion that his uncle is a drunkard, Claudius seems fiercely intelligent and worthy of his role of king, even though Claudius won power through ill-gotten means. The film is ultimately an accurate and justified reflection of the text, even if it is possible to interpret the text differently than the director.
