Can you tell that the young'n is away? We get to catch up on movies, and I pass the savings on to you. :-)
The Merchant of Venice: As a theatre professional it is almost a requirement that I eventually see any film version of Shakespeare(although I have no desire to see DiCaprio's Romeo and Juliet, and don't get me started on Keanu)so we rented Al Pacino's Merchant of Venice. I must confess I have never seen, nor read this one, so I was a blank slate. Many moons ago Mr. Pacino did a wonderful film called Looking for Richard in which he portrayed the embattled Richard the Third, so I knew he had the chops for the Bard. And true to form all the performances were spectacular. Jeremy Irons, playing the good guy for once, was magnificent, as was Joseph Fiennes. Lynn Collins as Portia was the shining sapphire in this glorious crown of a cast, and for the first time I could believe the Shakepearean conceit of a woman dressed as a man fooling anyone. The directing was unhurried, but brisk, and the cinemetography was gorgeous. But...
As I said, I am unfamiliar with the text of this play, so I don't know how much had to be edited to get it to it's just over 2 hour running time, but despite Pacino's best efforts to make Shylock a real, sympathetic character it just doesn't work. The piece comes off as a horribly outdated, majorly anti-Semitic diatribe against the Jewish population of Elizabethan England. Shylock, for all the attempts to show that he is justified in his feelings of victimize, merely comes off as a monstrous caricature, determined to use the law to exact revenge upon a population that at once spurns and needs him. And in the end, when his plans are foiled and the court requires him to become a Christian, an ending that Shakespeare no doubt felt was a happy one, I felt disgusted. This film is a beautifully crafted, but horribly flawed look into the prejudices of our past, but I don't know that it is a necessary one.
The Brothers Grimm: My wife is a great fan of fairy tales, especially those of the Brothers Grimm. So we were quite anxious to see Terry Gilliam's latest when it was in theatres. Alas it did not come to pass, so we had to wait for the DVD. I, for one, am glad we did. The Brothers Grimm are two shysters, traveling about French occupied Germany, staging hauntings and demonic attacks, then 'saving the day' for a price. Then they come up against The Real Thing. Animate trees, shapeshifting wolves, bugs...bugs...bugs!! Adventures, and computer animations, ensue. But then things get a bit muddied. Heath Ledger and Matt Damon turn in fine performances as the constantly bickering eponymous duo, as does Lena Headey as the love interest/damsel in distress Anjelika, but Gilliam can't seem to make up his mind if he's making a light-hearted, somewhat campy fairy tale movie, or a sinister ride through the hellscape that spawned most of these tales. One minute we are laughing at the almost ridiculous antics of the Italian torturer, Cavaldi, the next we are retching at the sight of a henchman torn in half by an angry tree. The movie makes such leaps frequently, seeming more like a roller coaster that goes through a carnival fun house. It isn't a bad film, just an uneven one. But even with all it's flaws, my wife is happy to have gotten it for a birthday present, and I suppose that's the important part.
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