A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM Cast: Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Dominic West, Christian Bale, David Strathairn, Sophie Marceau Director: Michael Hoffman Screenplay: Michael Hoffman, based on the play by William Shakespeare Reviewed by Luke Buckmaster
On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 3 stars
Whilst A Midsummer Night's Dream may not be one of Shakespeare's best plays, it's arguably his most atmospheric. Only one previous film adaptation has been made by a major studio, and that was in the 1930's. The reason: it's such a big ask for a motion picture. The Bard intended his play to be a magical and luminous experience, and these are qualities that can't be produced through just a script. Thankfully, filmmaker Michael Hoffman's take on the well-known production is pleasing to the senses, and with the aid of cinematographer Oliver Stapleton (One Fine Day), he has created quite a spectacular mythical world. The lively visual energy of A Midsummer Night's Dream is its selling point both commercially and artistically and it evokes, as Shakespeare would have would intended, a sense of wonder and magic. Although some of the film's other elements bring it down - which, incidentally, are mostly the same things that limited the play's narrative success - this piece will please the masses, and for all the right reasons.
Instead of 16th century Greece the setting is 19th century Tuscany, and the bicycle has just been invented. Kevin Kline is Nick Bottom, a comical, obnoxious but courageous actor who is assigned to play Pyramus in 'Pyramus and Thisby,' an absurd drama from a company of struggling entertainers. They are to perform in front of the Duke on his wedding night. Meanwhile, four star-crossed lovers are pursuing each other in a magical forest. Helena (Calista Flockhart) loves Demetrius (Christian Bale), who barely acknowledges her existence and is engaged to marry Hermia (Christian Bale), but Hermia's true object of affection is Lysander (Dominic West). The Fairy King Oberon (Rupert Everett) watches them from a distance, and instructs his mischievous servant Puck (Stanley Tucci) to find a special kind of flower juice. A drop of this juice, once placed on the eyelids of somebody sleeping, will make them fall instantly in love to the first person they see upon waking. Puck, of course, worsens the situation by placing the juice on the wrong set of eyelids.
Given the nature of his material, Hoffman's direction is quite heavy handed. Much of the cast, too, try a little too hard to make it all work. Kevin Kline is the only lead performer who looks completely natural on the screen, and almost effortlessly entertains. Bottom, as a comical character, is one of Shakespeare's finest, and Kline fits the criteria perfectly. Calista "Ally McBeal" Flockhart, on the other hand, is more unconventional in her approach to Helena's eccentric personality. Flockhart overplays her somewhat, obviously intending to portray love-struck Shakespearean craziness, but she misfires somewhere along the line. Perhaps it's because she is the only actor who looks like she's been dragged from the set of Ally McBeal and asked to read Shakespeare. Flockhart, and especially Hoffman, are two production members who sometimes make A Midsummer Night's Dream feel like it is taking itself a little too seriously. Even in the final scene, in which Puck recites his famous speech ("if we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended…"), Hoffman misses the point entirely. He takes the speech very seriously, whereas Shakespeare intended it to ask forgiveness for those who were hoping for another Macbeth or Hamlet.
Be that as it may, A Midsummer Nigh'ts Dream is a solid and entertaining adaptation with some nice touches, both visually and literately. Watching cast members wizz around on bicycles is a novel idea, as are a couple of fun scenes that audiences will get a hoot from, including a good old fashioned female mud fight and, as Geoffrey Rush in Shakespeare in Love voiced, a "bit with a dog." The film's narrative structure, like the play's, is simplistic if not a little trite, but it was never intended to be something profound. A Midsummer Night's Dream is probably the closest description of Melrose Place in the 16th century (or, as it is here, the 19th century) that one can find. If you are tossing up whether to see Michael Hoffman's beautifully textured, visually entrancing and charming film or wait for the next high school production, I know which one I'd choose.
Read more of my reviews at In Film Australia http://infilmau.iah.net
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