None of this is meant to say that O is a total waste of time. At the very least, it's a far better film than the obtuse 1995 version of Othello, which starred Lawrence Fishburne and strayed far from the original tale but still relied on cryptic Elizabethan-era English. O is far more faithful to the original story than I would have suspected, even handling those tricky asides and character-hiding-in-a-closet scenes with aplomb. Ultimately, the source material keeps O mostly afloat, telling a unique and tragic story about how a single, well-placed rumor can ruin the life of somebody who otherwise has it made.
Mired in the "marketing violent movies to teens is bad" controversy of 1999-2000, O has been sitting on the shelf for a while, building a large volume of clips that claim it's the most violent thing since Natural Born Killers. A word to audiences -- this is far from the truth. In fact, those expecting a Columbine-style rampage (a ridiculous link which I've nonetheless found in 538 articles on Nexis.com) will be disappointed by the relatively tame ending -- comprising four gunshots and a quiet strangling.
RATING: ***
|------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
|------------------------------|
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Tim Blake Nelson Producer: Daniel Fried, Eric Gitter, Anthony Rhulen Writer: Brad Kaaya Starring: Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles, Martin Sheen, Elden Henson, Andrew Keegan, Rain Phoenix, John Heard, Rachel Schumate, Christopher Jones
http://www.lionsgate-ent.com/dnm/profile.html?pid=IN-L-00046
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========== X-RAMR-ID: 29232 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 244232 X-RT-TitleID: 1108976 X-RT-SourceID: 178 X-RT-AuthorID: 1062 X-RT-RatingText: 3/5
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