A Midsummer
Night's Dream
Directed by Michael Hoffman
Starring : Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Michelle Pfieffer, Kevin
Kline and Calista Flockhart.
playing at selected theaters - hunt for it!
* * 1/2
(two and one half stars)
no
time to read the whole review?
THE
JIST of MY PROSE
An outstanding and
well-staged second act can't save the clunky first act and downright boring
third act, the important ones which start and finish this extremely uneven
and forced adaptation. The review seems to sound as if it were written
as a school project. My apologies.
'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' is a dreamlike film, cluttered in every
inch of
the frame with decadent setpieces, flashy costumes and animated acting.
As
in Michael Hoffman’s last film, 'Restoration', the characters are inhabiting
a
world of pleasure and pain, beauty and ugliness, darkness and light.
Hoffman’s eye seems to only capture black and white - one extreme or
the
other, in every aspect of his direction. The film is supremely well-acted.
Standout performances from the entire cast with the exception (and
it seems
all Shakespeare films have at least one) of Michelle Pfeiffer who looks
the
part, but who’s “straightforward naivete with a desperate tinge” acting
style
is completely flat when adapted for the dialogue and atmosphere. The
film
begins very slowly, but gathers steam in it’s second act when the occurrences
of the title begin to come to light. As the film winds around each
turn, we see
it’s serving it’s smaller purpose as a comic romance while looking
the part of
the epic plays Shakespeare has written . All of the Bard’s cinema attempts
have near the same feel. They all feel so lost in the world of celluloid.
This
one is no different, but, following suit, it easily showcases some
scenes with
great energy and likability. It’s a folly to include the third act
when the film
could so easily end twenty to thirty minutes sooner, feel tighter and
work
better, but, staying true to the Bard, Hoffman strives for completeness.
This
leaves the viewer feeling like they’ve just had something great and
lost it. No
director seems to understand that a visual modification isn’t going
to do the
trick - Shakespeare needs to be severely tinkered with when brought
to the
screen because the stage is the place for verse, poetry and rhyme and
the
multiplex is the place for depth, articulation and eloquence. This
explains the
failure of 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' as both a modern Bard attempts
and
as a financial coattail to the success of 'Shakespeare in Love'.