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Summary: The Tempest is American comedy/drama film based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare. The film is directed by Julie Taymor and stars an ensemble cast. The Tempest premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2010. (wikipedia.org)
I quite liked it. I was really impressed by the performances of Helen Mirren, Djimon Hounsou and Ben Wishaw. Even Russell Brand wasn’t bad. Visually, it was so stunning and amazing, I thought. Great cinematography and colours and visual effects. The ending of the story is a bit disappointing, but everything up until that is fantastic. If you like Shakespeare, I think it’s worth a watch. If not, you probably wouldn’t like it much.
The visuals are a trip, but the rest of the film is too awkward for its own good and can't be saved by the more than competent cast. Russel Brand is once again damn near insufferable.
This film got a lot of poor reviews, but I happen to disagree with them for the most part. I've seen a number of stage versions of the Tempest and I prefer this film to any of them. Mirren's performance is amazing as are many of the others and the special effects, while over-the-top, don't outshine the great use of language and specificity.
Everything that makes Shakespeare's final play a great expression of the dangers and risks of ambition in Western civilization is lost in this sex change.
Mirren and Strathairn give uncharacteristically wooden performances, and The Tempest is definitely not one of Shakespeare's stronger plays, but somehow the movie slugs along on its own inherent weirdness. The jarring editing and the ghastly looking CGI end up becoming rather charming in their complete inappropriateness.
"Julie Taymor's new film version of The Tempest isn't as disastrous as it could have been, though it does fundamentally fail Shakespeare's play." - Aaron Cutler