King Lear with Anthony Hopkins as Lear on Amazon Prime (produced by Amazon and BBC). Just finished watching this. Loved every minute of it. They made cuts and really created a tight, action packed movie out of this play. The modern setting was great, and the cinematography was excellent.
The performances are what sets this one apart - everyone brought their A game and that made it all the more compelling. To focus on Hopkins, he plays Lear like a man that is truly insane. Maybe even a bit of Parkinson's too. It really shifts the tone of the film.
Normally in Lear you get the sense that the oldest 2 daughters are conniving schemers and that Lear is a bit of a victim ("more sinned against than sinning"), but in this version Lear's a right bastard and these 2 daughters are likely products of a pretty horrible home life. Oh, they are still quite vicious, but are more nuanced than in other versions.
As a viewer, you're left in the quandary of knowing that clearly the British State is in bad shape with those 2 daughters in charge, but in many respects it's even worse with Lear who's pretty much a madman. There's no real answer that's viable. And of course it wouldn't be Shakespeare if everyone didn't suffer enormously and/or die tragically. I love the bleak old bastard.
PS, one nice feature of watching it on Amazon - you can turn on the subtitles. I strongly recommend doing it, the dialog is way too intricate and spoken too rapidly to catch it just via audio. I say that as someone that's very familiar with this play. Trust me, the subtitles are a blessing.