Latest Shakespeare film remains true to text

By Tam Notosusanto

JAKARTA (JP): You can blame Old Will for this current rush of Shakespearian material on the big screen.

All it takes is Shakespeare in Love to win the Oscar for Best Picture, and now we witness the release of a slew of new films adapted from The Bard's famous plays. Earlier this year we got 10 Things I Hate About You, which is The Taming of the Shrew relocated to a U.S. high school. Next in line will be a modern- day Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost and a reworking of Othello.

William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is just one more addition to the merriment. It's not the first one, either, to embed the playwright's name in the title (remember the visual ly dazzling William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?). It's probably because the film wants to distinguish itself from a dozen previous adaptations of the same play, or because the filmmakers weren't sure today's moviegoing audience would recog nize it right away as one of Shakespeare's creations.

Unlike other current adaptations of The Bard's work, which seem to have the tendency to jazz up and bring the material as close to a contemporary setting as possible, this Midsummer remains true to the style and imagery of the play. Writer-direc tor Michael Hoffman (Soapdish, One Fine Day) did bring 16th century Athena to 19th century Mount Athena, Italy, but Shakespeare's text and classical atmosphere remain intact.

As we go through the opening credits, adorned by a hundred Tinker Bell-like fireflies, we thought we had wrongly stepped into a Disney film. But the film took us right away to the center of the small Italian town, where preparations for the wedding of Duke Theseus (David Strathairn) and Hippolyta (Sophie Marceau) were taking place. In the middle of it all, we were introduced to lovers Lysander (Dominic West) and Hermia (Anna Friel), who do not get Hermia's father's blessing. On the other hand, there's Demetrius (Christian Bale), who is so enamored by Hermia he is almost oblivious to the fact that a woman named Helena (Calista Flockhart) has a tremendous crush on him.

At another part of the town, we encounter a group of blue- collar workers rehearsing a play they hope to stage at the royal wedding, led by the constantly-distressed Peter Quince (Roger Rees) and the flamboyant aspiring actor Nick Bottom (Kevin Kline).

The film completes its introduction round by taking us into the woods to visit the fairy kingdom, where the fairy king Oberon (Rupert Everett) and queen Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer) are having one of their domestic quarrels.

Leave it to The Bard to weave a splendid, comical story using this multi-character cast, and to a playful spirit named Puck (Stanley Tucci) to stir things up with his unintentional mishaps. As the humans go into the forest, they experience an enchanted night of confusion and romantic attraction they can't fully grasp themselves. Bottom, who is transformed into a donkey-headed mutant, ends up in the blissful embrace of the fairy queen, while Helena suddenly finds herself the object of both Demetrius' and Lysander's desires, leaving Hermia ironically unwanted. All this provides a good reason for Puck to utter, "Lord, what fools these mortals be."

Hoffman captures the atmosphere of Shakespeare's fairy world in Luciana Arrighi's leafy production design, with half-naked actors prancing about as blithe spirits. They come out as radi ant, carefree creatures, who may be too innocent to know the use of gramophones and records they steal from the human world, but are considerably wiser when it comes to matters of love. Meanwhile, the humans are such complicated love fools, they only deserve to be bruised and dirty and covered with mud.

It's unfortunate that some of the film's acting doesn't really hit it. Pfeiffer, despite her smashing looks, is too monotonous and not elegant enough as Titania. Kline is too charismatic and good-looking, even with a hairy face and an ass's big ears, that he drowns the irony of the little ugly villager who gets a lucky fling with the fairy queen. And Tucci appears too middle-aged to convey Puck's mischievous, childlike personality.

On the other hand, Ally McBeal's Flockhart is appropriately frazzled as the unattractive woman who suddenly gets pursued by two men. And Everett, instead of being the traditionally over bearing Oberon, breaks all the rules by giving us a low-key, soft-spoken fairy king.

The quintessence of this film, however, is in its last segment, where "the mechanicals" perform their play in front of the Duke and his distinguished guests, and which is the most hysterical part of the entire movie. There Hoffman elevates these working-class losers from mere comic foils in Shakespeare's play into significant, meaningful roles. The sight of their faces as they receive accolade from the Duke is enough to make this movie stands out among other adaptations. In William Shake speare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the mortals may be fools, and the fairies wise, but it's the little people who are triumphant.