Noutions
Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
Sameer Callahan
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
gcsman
"...like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself ... shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep." What actor or actress wouldn't give their eye teeth to deliver those lines? No other writer in the English language can conjure up such transcendently strong, evocative language. The Tempest was the last play that Shakespeare wrote entirely by himself, and it's hard to avoid the feeling that this was the master's farewell flourish. If you haven't seen this movie, it's absolutely worth it. Ignore the negative posts; I have no idea what their problem is. I rate this as among the best Shakespeare adaptations specifically for the screen, along with Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet" and Branagh's "Much Ado About Nothing" and a very few others.
When this movie was released there was predictably a minor flap about the central character of the old magician/sage Prospero (here, Prospera) being played by a woman. But it turns out to be no problem at all; with some extremely small adjustments to the text, everything works just fine, including the parent/child relationship (Prospera/Miranda) which is now mother/daughter. And Helen Mirren, one of our greatest living actresses, sells it. Converting Shakespeare to film carries both advantages and risks, but one advantage is an extra dimension of nuance: with effective use of close-ups the actors can act with subtle facial expressions as well as with dialog and body language. And Mirren does this very effectively indeed -- watch her face carefully in every one of her scenes. This movie also doesn't shy away from the full text; it's delivered clearly and for anyone not so familiar with Shakespeare's wording this is as good a place to start as any. Another advantage of film is the ability to use special effects, which this movie uses especially for the airy spirit Ariel (an excellent Ben Whishaw) and for the final "vision" sequence. These work well, they add to the overall feel of the play, and (avoiding the risk) they're not overdone. Compared with other Shakespeare plays the list of characters is relatively small, and although there's no doubt this is Helen Mirren's film, the rest of the cast is uniformly good. Felicity Jones is a really nice and convincing Miranda, Djimon Hounsou gives a strongly portrayed version of the conflicted Caliban, and the shipwrecked nobles (David Strathairn, Alan Cumming, Chris Cooper, Reeve Carney, Tom Conti) are uniformly good. The biggest problem area with The Tempest (as a play) is with the "fools" (the comic relief, here played by Alfred Molina and Russell Brand): relative to other plays they just aren't that funny and they seem to be just a distraction to the main story, but to their credit Molina and Brand pull off just about the best versions of them that I've seen.Kudos to director Julie Taymor for giving us this. She's someone with genuine vision and is no stranger to Shakespeare either -- see her eccentrically powerful version of Titus Andronicus ("Titus" 1999, with Anthony Hopkins) as one other example.
chaswe-28402
It has to be reckoned something of an achievement for Taymor to have delivered such a reverse reading of this play. Prospero is Shakespeare's autobiography, and he is not a woman. The island landscape here is barrenly lunar, Icelandic even, rather than mysteriously magical. Caliban should be a Carib, not an African, in spite of being the son of Sycorax of Algiers. Ariel seemed reasonably impressive to me, but the best part was delivered by Felicity Jones as Miranda, as the fifteen year old being introduced to adulthood. But the shipwrecked crew do not exactly represent a brave new world to me. Brand and Molina are not funny in the slightest, but then few of Shakespeare's clowns raise a smile these days. Ferdinand is a complete non-entity. It was disconcerting to recognise (just) Tom Conti. Mirren was not really at her best. The play resembles many of Shakespeare's works in that it is positively stuffed with quotations, familiar to anyone with anything approaching a halfway reasonable education. Still, I must admit that I followed the action with some interest, and was engaged by a desire to discover what would unfold. An oddity, not without merit. The extra feature was worth while.
Prismark10
Julie Taymor re-imagines Shakespeare's The Tempest but I am not sure that despite the visual imagery it has been made any more accessible.Helen Mirren takes centre stage and Prospero from the original text becomes Prospera the wronged wife of the Duke of Milan, accused of witchcraft and exiled with her baby daughter as her brother takes over the dukedom.The ship she is in ends up in a remote island. She raises her daughter Miranda and enters a power struggle with the human beast Caliban who she has enslaved and wrested control of the spirit Ariel.Some years later Propsera gets the chance for vengeance as Ariel causes a tempest wrecking the ship that carries the people who wronged Prospera to the island.Helen Mirren is great as Prospera and delights in reading text reserved for a male actor. The visuals are sumptuous, we see Ben Wishaw flying about as Ariel. Djimon Hounsou is imposing as Caliban waiting for a chance to gets his own revenge on Prospera.The film never really grabs you by the lapels and hence you find yourself wandering off. Russell Brand as the jester is a misfire, you think he is just playing himself and feels rather off when the actors are putting more efforts in their respective parts.A noble attempt to bring a difficult play on to the screen but not successfully done. The switch of the main role from male to female was never an issue for me and the tweaking of the adaptation was a bold move that did pay off.
ianlouisiana
and those are pearls that were his eyes"........just to remind us that Mr W Shakespeare wrote some of the greatest words ever conceived by a human being,because mostly they are mangled by the cast of the latest version of "The Tempest" which has clearly been fashioned for the "Harry Potter" generation with just a touch of"Kevin and Perry" introduced into the character of Ariel and a soupcon of stand - up provided by the ineffably smug Mr R.Brand. There is little point in dwelling on the gimmicky re - imagining of Prospero as Prospera which might find some support in Camden and Highgate or places where The Sisterhood gather to stick pins in images of Jim Davidson but may be seen for what it is - a desperate effort to offer Shakespeare in a "modern" and "relevant" context,ignoring the fact that each audience will find both those qualities from their own interpretation. Predictably enough only Miss H.Mirren speaks the Bard's words with any assuredness. Other cast members seem to think overacting is the default mode when faced with a script that requires one to understand and interpret the lines rather than parrot them. There are not many reasons to be thankful for old age,but I am grateful that I saw Gielgud's Prospero at Drury Lane in 1957. That night,on a small stage in a smokey,over - heated London theatre,magic was in the air. When I think of "The Tempest" it is that I return to.
