A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM 1999
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1999 Timothy Voon
3 out of 4 for love shacking in the woods
Cast: Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Christian Bale, Dominic West, David Strathairn, Sophie Marceau. Screenplay: Michael Hoffman, based on the play by William Shakespeare. Producers: Leslie Urdang and Michael Hoffman. Director: Michael Hoffman.
For those who have little idea of what this movie is about, it's about Shakespeare. Don't be like the poor gentleman behind me who paid good money for a seat, probably drawn in by names like Pfeiffer and Flockhart, only to be disappointed that they are speaking in a different language. That's right. It takes a good fifteen to twenty minutes for the human brain to comprehend that this is actually English - the smarter, more poetic sort. But once the brain has rearranged several pathways of functioning, Shakespeare becomes understandable and that's when you begin to realise, what a truly great artist he was.
Problems – the setting, the costumes and the actors all seem slightly out of place neither looking Greek, or as if the names Helena, Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander truly belong to them.
Humour. Lots of naked butts and sex references. The grade six kids who were sent in by their parents, no doubt for the educational experience, ended up giggling whenever bare flesh flashed their way. Shakespeare was no doubt ahead of his time. The Fairy Queen Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer) gets laid by an Ass (not arse), and when her husband Oberon finally breaks the spell (in forgiveness), they get laid next to the Ass. This says a lot about taking animals to bed. There is also implied group sex when the love quadrangle of Helena (Calista Flockhart), Hermia (Anna Friel), Lysander (Dominic West) and Demetrius (Christian Bale), all have a mud fight\bath before waking up stripped naked (by the fairies) and in each others arms. No one has a knack for sex and comedy like Shakespeare.
Of note is Michelle Pfeiffer, who is devastatingly beautiful as the fairy Queen. She has not exuded this much sensuality into a role since, ‘Lady Hawk'. Kevin Klein makes a great Ass, and Rupert Everett flaunts his male form about no doubt to entice both sexes as Oberon the fairy King (pun intended). Calista Flockhart takes her Ally McBeal into Helena. This is Shakespeare and this is a love-story born from the heart of a warm midsummer's night. When you awake the next morning, you will wonder to yourself, was it all a wonderful dream or did you really have sex with an Ass.
Timothy Voon
e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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