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Directed by: Michael Radford Starring: Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes, Lynn Collins Timeless story, incredible actor, beautiful setting, what could go wrong? Nothing, and nothing does, in this spot-on silver screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. The story is a familiar one: taking place in sixteenth century Venice, Bassanio (Fiennes) needs money for his pursuit of the maiden Portia (Collins), so on the tab of lifelong friend Antonio (Irons) he takes a loan from Jewish moneylender Shylock (Pacino). The loan is given under the circumstance that should Antonio find himself unable to repay Shylock, he will find himself in debt one pound of his own flesh. There's no need for me to butcher Shakespeare here and go into the nitty-gritty of every painstaking aspect of the shrewedly unfolding tale, but that's the long and short of it. The production value is without question fantastic. The use bright pastel hues and a vibrant color pallate make every scene into yet another piece of eye candy. The costume direction is perfectly in line, and the scenery is beautiful and intimidating. The acting is also fabulous, which is evident from the second the movie begins. The performances are ubiquitously wonderful, with a special nod to Pacino for the return of the fantastic use of his eyes. Every second of The Merchant of Venice is to be revelled in. From the scenery, painting a vivid and colorful picture of Venice, to Pacino's unbelievable rendition of Shylock (reaffirming to me personally that he is in fact the greatest actor ever), the film is just a pleasure to watch. Authentic both to its source material and its exotic locales, everything about this film was totally nailed, and without anything that could even potentially resemble hesitation I recommend it. RATING: 5.0 PROS: Great acting, top-notch music, beautiful cinematography CONS: If you hate Shakespeare, you're kind of hosed ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379889/ barf carton fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Feb 9, 2005 |
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Feb 9, 2005 06:39
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 01:56 |
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I just saw this last night; only one theater has it in the entire Twin Cities area. This film is a beautiful adaption to Shakespeare's original. There is so much color in the characters and in every scene. Al Pacino is flawless, and the rest of the cast, including Jeremy Irons, does a wonderful job as well. I can also see why it was not released widescale: The film adaption is in Shakespeare's beautiful Old-English, which to a certain extent almost makes you wish they had subtitles. Almost. 5/5 localClient fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Feb 17, 2005 |
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Feb 17, 2005 21:38
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Never having read or seen a production of this work of Shakespeare, I came in expecting it to revolve around Shylock's deal with Antonio. Needless to say, it was much, much more. Commenting on the story other than lauding the faithfulness that Radford kept to the original is superfluous because it's Shakespeare and to fault him would be ludicrous. Anyways, the cinematography was very beautiful with the color scheme absolutely fitting and adding multiple dimensions to an already great film. The setting of late 15th century Venice is also very interesting and the costumes were awesome. The most standout part of this film, to me, was Pacino's intense role as Shylock. While at times I pictured his previous characters, a majority of the time I could only see him as Shylock. Pacino is definately one of the all-time great actors. The supporting cast was great with Irons really standing out and Fiennes doing nicely. 4.5/5
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Mar 15, 2005 06:46
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Superbly done in all respects. I wish I'd had the chance to see this while it was still in theaters. Shakespeare fans should have a great time with this one. 4.5/5
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Apr 6, 2005 14:17
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quote:localClient came out of the closet to say:  Shakespeare wrote in early modern English.Pacino is absolutely amazing in this film. The "hath not a jew eyes" speech was some of the finest Shakesperian acting I've ever seen. I thought it was interesting that they brought out the homosexual undertones in this play. I've never seen a production of TMOV before but I'd tend to think that they usually gloss over those implications. 4.5/5
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Apr 9, 2005 17:29
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