Themes: Supernatural Romance, Unrequited Love, Actor's Life
Main Cast: Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Christian Bale, Dominic West, David Strathairn, Sophie Marceau
Release Year: 1999
Country: US/IT/UK
Run Time: 116 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
With William Shakespeare now a hot commodity at the box office (and his body of work conveniently out of copyright), the usual trickle of film adaptations of the Bard's work is becoming a small flood, and director Michael Hoffman has assembled a cast of leading stage and screen actors for this whimsical film version of one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies. This interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream moves the action to Tuscany near the turn of the 20th century, as both mortals and enchanted creatures deal with romantic problems. Among the flesh-and-blood crowd, Duke Theseus (played by David Strathairn) is preparing for his wedding to Hippolyta (Sophie Marceau), while having to counsel Egeus (Bernard Hill), who has promised the hand of his daughter Hermia (Anna Friel) to Demetrius (Christian Bale). Hermia, however, wants to elope with her true love, Lysander (Dominic West), while her best friend Helena (Calista Flockhart) is mad about Demetrius. Meanwhile, fairies living in the forest are watching these romantic misadventures. Puck (Stanley Tucci) serves up love potions that mix and match the already confused lovers, while the Queen of Fairies, Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer), and her King, Oberon (Rupert Everett), have to deal with a group of hapless actors rehearsing a play in the forest -- one of whom, Bottom (Kevin Kline), has fallen under Puck's spell and becomes Titania's new lover. Will anyone end up with the person they really love? Who will get hurt riding their bicycles in the woods? Will Helena sit down and eat a square meal? Director Hoffman, a longtime Shakespeare buff, appeared as Lysander in a production of the play while a college student, and has since spearheaded a campaign to build a new $3 million theatre for his alma mater in Boise, ID. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Brimming with fairies, sex, love potions, transformations, and slightly malevolent forays into matchmaking, A Midsummer Night's Dream leaves its interpreters with much to work with. Its already preposterous nature allows for quite a bit of tweaking, and the play has often fallen victim to ill-fated flights of directorial whimsy. Michael Hoffman, in an effort to showcase the decadent nature of A Midsummer Night's Dream, changed its original location in ancient Greece to a more sensual 19th century Italy, accomplishing little save for providing some gorgeous scenery and low-cut period costumes. Otherwise, the play was left to speak for itself by means of a stellar cast and its legendary playwright, William Shakespeare. Rupert Everett gives a delightfully brooding performance as Oberon, the fairy king, who sets the chaos in motion when he enchants his wife into falling in love with Nick Bottom (Kevin Kline), the aspiring thespian-turned-mule via one nasty potion. Kline, a Shakespearean veteran, shamelessly hams it up as the melodramatic Nick, while simultaneously imparting a buffoonish vulnerability. The forest setting is frenzied, wildly sexual, and arguably more hallucinatory than director Baz Luhrmann's modernized version of Romeo + Juliet. The best thing about Hoffman's take on A Midsummer Night's Dream, however, is his expert interweaving of the conventional and the outlandish. Though the film is traditional enough in its approach to use Felix Mendelssohn's classical compositions, as did director Max Reinhardt in his 1935 Hollywood version, it portrayed fairies as they were believed to be by Elizabethans: humorous, mischievous, sexual, and oftentimes up to no good. The surreal, sweaty atmosphere combined with giddy Elizabethan dialogue and one seriously lowbrow plot makes for a visually stimulating adventure and an irresistibly happy ending. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
The film was released in the midst of the short-lived Shakespeare-on-film revival initiated by the success of Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. Director Michael Hoffman reset the play in Italy in the mid-nineteenth century, and several of the characters were seen riding bicycles. There was also a rather notorious mud wrestling scene between Anna Friel (as Hermia) and Calista Flockhart (as Helena). Actor Kevin Kline was cast as a more handsome Nick Bottom than is usual, and was even given a wife (she, however, has no speaking lines and only appears in two scenes). Along with veteran Shakespeare actors, director Michael Hoffman also cast Calista Flockhart, Michelle Pfeiffer, David Strathairn, Sophie Marceau and Stanley Tucci in major roles.
Although the film was reset in Italy, every mention of Athens, Greece (the play's original setting) was still retained.
In contrast to the earlier 1935 film version, Helena was given more screen time in the film than Hermia.
Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews when released theatrically, but far more positive ones when the DVD was issued. The greatest praise went to the performances of Kevin Kline, Rupert Everett, Calista Flockhart, and Stanley Tucci, while the performances most panned were those of David Strathairn and Sophie Marceau.[1]
DVD Editions
The DVD has been released twice in the United States. The second release, issued in 2008 and touted as a "Special Edition", was released with a Cliff's Notes booklet offering an analysis of the play and its characters. Both of the U.S. DVD releases, however, have been issued in a letterboxed transfer that is not enhanced for widescreen television sets. The Australian DVD release, on the other hand, is anamorphically enhanced.
