A Midsummernight's Dream

A movie by Michael Hoffman

With Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Callista Flockhart

Christina says:

On the day before his wedding with Hyppolyta (Sophie Marceau) Duke Theseus (David Strathairn) is to settle an argument. Hermia (Anna Friel) is supposed to marry Demetrius (Christian Bale), but she is in love with Lysander (Dominic West). If she doesn't consent to marry her father's favorite she will be sent to a convent. Therefore Hermia wants to elope with her lover. She confides her plan to her best friend Helena (Callista Flockhart) who is hopelessly in love with Demetrius. Believing that Demetrius will then give up Hermia, Helena tells him about the planned elopement. But her plan backfires and Demetrius races after the runaways, pursued by Helena. The four end up in an enchanted forest where elves, ghosts and fairies dance at night. Jealous fairy king Oberon (Rupert Everett) woes the beautiful fairy queen Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer) with sometimes-unfair methods, aided by his right hand Puck (Stanley Tucci). They also cause a lot of confusion among the young people lost in the woods. In the end there is a lid to every pot and the wedding celebrations may begin.

Once more a Shakespeare play was transplanted to Italy. Tuscany is a beautiful place and the beginning of the movie reminds you so much of a commercial for spaghetti sauce it makes your mouth water. Unfortunately this sauce, pardon, this movie is rather dull in taste. It bears no comparison with Kenneth Branagh's version of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. This time we find ourselves at the end of the 19^th Century. A lot is made of the recent invention of the bicycle, who knows why. Perhaps the producers failed to rent a sufficient number of horses. To add some local color the extras in the streets speak Italian while the main characters talk in Shakespearean verse. That doesn't help them at all. I found the illustrious cast rather flat and boring, with the exception of Kevin Kline as Bottom. Callista Flockhart's grimacing took some getting used to, and the mud wrestling between Helena and Hermia was plain superfluous. Michael Hoffman's fairy forest is a dull place, but at least we get to look at the scantily clad Rupert Everett, so I won't complain. Thanks to Stanley Tucci's performance as Puck and the play within the play that Bottom and his friends put on to honor the duke the movie has its funny stretches.

What I liked best about A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM was the music Simon Boswell wrote for the scenes in the enchanted forest. For the scenes in town Hoffman chose popular tunes by Puccini, Verdi and Mendelssohn, and much as I like to listen to them, in this context they reminded me too much of TV commercials, whose makers tend to lean towards that style of music as well.

A rather lame adaption of an old master.

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Christina Gross

Last changes: 01/04/03