Merchant of Venice: Serious Comedy!

I'm hardly a Shakespeare expert, but I have seen and enjoyed quite a few film adaptations of his plays and recognize the monumental genius of his work that stands as the foundation of drama and story in western culture. The trick with these adaptations is to make Shakespeare's brilliantly crafted language clearly understandable to us 400 years on. The best films, imho, are the comedy Much Ado About Nothing, which is easily the most accessible adaptation yet, through it's beautifully enunciated performances, and then the stark tragedy Titus, which draws more heavily on it's superb visual presentation.

So what about The Merchant of Venice? Well, I hadn't read it nor seen any stage or film productions of it... have you? So I can at least vouch that this review is relatively free of preconceptions. First, it is supposedly grouped with Shakespeare's comedies - well the way it is played here, it seems to be clearly in the tragedy camp (at least in our modern definitions of those terms) - at any rate, it's hardly laugh out loud funny, like Ado - this is not any kind of happy, feel good tale. The main theme seems to be the nature of law, and how it is rooted in our individual ethics and then in our real world behavior, and it is a very deep meditation on this not altogether logical progression. The acting is solid throughout, each of the main characters spoke their parts clearly and such that I was drawn into empathy with their lot. It was especially enjoyable to see Al Pacino blustering on in his full Venetian regalia, and I'm always happy to see the lately underused Jeremy Irons. On the downside, the story is exceedingly complex to take it all in on the first viewing. I think, I would now benefit from reading the play and some modern day analysis of it, then seeing the movie again. Quite a commitment, and one I didn't feel the need to do after seeing the above two mentioned adapations. So, is the play itself, that much more complex, or is it a fault in the adaptation? I'm not sure, but I would be willing to give this play and production further opportunities to entertain and educate me in the years to come.

4 out of 5.

B+



Following Transamerica I have seen another unfairly underseen and overlooked film - The Merchant of Venice. This is a direct and pretty faithful adaptation of one of Shakespeare's most controversal works, often accused of being anti-Semitic. Having never read the source, I can't tell how much trutth there's to that, but the movie is certainly anything but anti-semitic.

Being a Shakespeare adaptation, all characters are speaking in verses which initially is a bit hard to get used to and appears too artifical, but after about 30-40 minutes into it, you get used to it completely and become more and more immersed in the happenings. Unlike many films that start out well and then disappoint in their ending, Merchant of Venice starts off rather slowly and uneventfully, only to exceed in its final 30 minutes or so. The trial scene near the end is the movie's central piece and works great. The scene is tense, emotional, surprising and very well put to screen. Before Merchant of Venice I have seen only one other Michael Radford film, Il Postino, and that disappointed me a lot. The Merchant of Venice, though, showcases his great abilities as a director. He had the right sensibilities for this kind of a difficult project.

Most of the kudos should go to two members of the cast, though who make this film stand out more than anything else. First of all, there's Al Pacino with his best performance in years! Honestly, I think it's a shame that he hasn't been considered for any wards for his role as the piece's "villain" Shylock. He shines in this role as an embittered, sad and angry man who has been made this way by the society around him. His deliverey of the movie's central monologue (of which you can see a quote in my signature) is pitch-perfect and his appearance in the courtroom scene speaks for itself. The second cast member I'd like to give some praise to is the relatively unknown Lynn Collins in the role of Portia who delivers a very strong performance too, being able to stand up even to Al Pacino. Another overlooked performance there.

On the downside, Joseph Fiennes (who I have never liked) and Jeremy Irons deliver two rather weak performances. Their strong friendship (or is it more?) is being emphasized over and over here, but there's never a reason for that to be seen. Especially Irons didn't impress me here. Moreover, the movie tries to tie elements of drama together with some comedic elements (as seen in the final stretch of the film) which doesn't work all too well, but can be forgiven for the strong rest of the feature. In particular the veryy final shot of the movie is simply beatiful and telling without a single word being said.

The technicals in the film are very good too with the film's very memorable score being the major stand-out.