The plot: (taken from commonsensemedia.org)
"Four couples sort out their romantic entanglements in Shakespeare's most magical love story. Hermia (Anna Friel) and Lysdander (Dominic West) love each other, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius (Christian Bale). Demetrius loves Hermia, but is loved by her friend Helena (Calista Flockhart). When Hermia and Lysander run off together, Demetrius chases after them, with Helena chasing him. Meanwhile the Queen of the Fairies, Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer), and her King, Oberon (Rupert Everett), argue over custody of a changeling child. The local Duke Theseus (David Strathairn) prepares for his marriage to Hippolyta (Sophie Marceau), and a group of workmen rehearse a play to perform at the wedding celebration. With the help of the mischievous Puck (Stanley Tucci), Oberon exposes his queen to a potion that causes people to fall in love with whomever they first see after they wake up. The queen falls in love with a man who has a donkey's head. But Lysander and Demetrius are exposed, too, and fall in love with the neglected Helena, forgetting all about Hermia. But by morning, everything is sorted out, and the wedding festivities end with the workmen's remarkable play."
The CNN Review:
This production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was a labor of love for all involved. They took huge cuts in their normal salaries in order to make this $14 million film.
Shot on location in Italy, it looks marvelous. Academy Award winner Luciana Arrighi ("Howard's End" and "Oscar and Lucinda") was the production designer. She outdid herself, creating this sensuous magical world-within-a-world. The costumes designed by another Academy winner Gabriella Pescucci ("The Age of Innocence") are at times beautiful and elaborate, at other times brief and glittery.
Special kudos go to Tucci for his performance as Puck, and to Flockhart as Helena. Yep, "Ally McBeal" has stage training and she's not bad. But hands down, Kevin Kline proves once again that he's one of America's best when it comes to performing Shakespearean work.
Unfortunately, despite the wonderful locations, sets, costumes, and strong acting, this adaptation has a strange lack of magic or chemistry between players. That's a major problem since this is a love story, after all.
My Review:
This interpretation of a midsummer nights dream is one I did find a little amateurish - almost as if they directors didn't take the work seriously and just wanted to 'have fun'. I believe the storyline was not made completely clear and was very different to the book. I also agree with the CNN review that the fairies were too humanlike, or rather that there wasn't a fine enough line between fairy and human. Titania was played by Michelle Pfeiffer who I think was a suitable actress to exhibit the beautiful but feisty character of Titania and from a visual reference point of view this was a useful watch. However I think overall for someone who wanted to understand the book slightly better, and turned to film which often is very helpful - this film didn't give the atmosphere, character visuals (bar Titania) or plot that the book did.
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