Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two out of Five ‘Staches.
Julie Taymor is no stranger to working with Shakespeare. She has directed numerous stage productions of his work and garnered acclaim with the film “Titus”. With “The Tempest”, Taymor gives the audience a pretty straightforward adaptation of the play; barring the fact that the main character has been given a sex change and goes from Prospero to Prospera. When all is said and done though, “The Tempest” is fairly flat and hard to take seriously.
Let’s just get to the nitty-gritty. “The Tempest” is a gorgeous looking film. The scenery is breathtaking without a doubt, but it all still comes off as a set piece. It almost feels like they took three locations and one set they built and said, “well it doesn’t look like a stage, so people will love it.” If you are adapting a work from the stage and bringing it to a world that you have more liberty to explore, I would imagine you should explore it. The landscapes are vast and wide, yet the whole time I still felt like I was looking at a production, not a world.
The same sentiment goes for the actors as well. This film is jam-packed with talent, yet they all seem to be acting as if they are on a stage. I know Shakespeare wrote with a rhythm and if you are taking the word direct from the page, there may only be so many ways to deliver them, but again, you have the liberty to explore, don’t squander it. One of my favorite Shakespeare “updates” was the criminally under-rated Ian McKellen version of “Richard the III”. In that film they used the original dialogue whilst bringing the story into the times of WWI. Nothing seemed out of place and everything more or less worked out for the better. That was a film that dared to play with the source material, just a little, yet create something new and adventurous about it. “The Tempest” comes in giving the character a sex change and just presents something nominal.
The biggest flaw of this film however, come from the choices made in how they dealt with the fairy, Ariel. Every time Ariel comes on the screen, I could not help but try to hold in the laughter I felt trying to burst out of my body. I dare anyone who sees the film to tell me the visuals of Ariel “attacking” the boat at the beginning of the film are not the most cheesy and corny images ever to be put onto film. The level of pure hilarity in which the character is presented, never lets up, even when he is presented as a large black monstrous crow that is supposed to be dark and imposing but comes off more as ridiculous and unimpressive. I also can’t get past Russell Brand acting and talking like Russell Brand. The choice to put him in the role makes sense on a characteristics level, but his ability to bring in a worthwhile performance really deflated any scene he is in. The same can be said for Djimon Hounsou, but more for the fact that it is difficult to understand one word he says for the entire film. Though he does sport some of the best make up, it doesn’t redeem the rest of the performance.
This version of “The Tempest” was a royal let down. While the rest of the performances, including Helen Mirren’s, were not bad, I feel none of them are worth elaborating on. Every time i think about this film, the first thing that pops into my head, is disappointment.
Movie Reviews, From Gene Shalit's Moustache 