John Safran once said “don’t trust people that re-work Shakespeare for the kids”, however I’m not sure the same can be said for Julie Taymor’s (Across The Universe, Frida) version of The Tempest. She doesn’t only do a little re-working of Shakespeare’s play she creates such a different version of the film that it is practically unrecognizable.
The Tempest tells the story of Prospera (Helen Mirren – Arthur, Red) a powerful sorceress who has been banished to live on an island with her daughter, Miranda (Felicity Jones – Chalet Girl, Like Crazy). Using the help of Ariel (Ben Whishaw – All Signs Of Death, Love Hate) Prospera decides to get revenge on the person who put her there. However with visitors on the Island, Prospera’s slave, Caliban (Djimon Hounsou – Elephant White, Push) decides to recruit some of them in a bid to overthrow Prospera.
Julie Taymor makes some brave choices with The Tempest and luckily for her they all work. Firstly she takes the character of Prospero and makes her a female, Prospera. For some reason this change seems to make the script work even better and the relationship between mother and daughter comes to the forefront and makes the story even more powerful. Helen Mirren was certainly the right choice to play this role, she is truly sensational and this is one performance that needs to be remembered in cinematic history. She is phenomenal.
Most people also like to try and ignore the fact that Shakespeare put quite a fair bit of humour into his plays but Taymor realizes this and ups the anti by casting Russell Brand (Hop, Arthur) in the role of Trinculo… a role he certainly makes his own. He is dramatic when he needs to be and has the audience rolling around with laughter the rest of the time.
The Tempest is a strange film that mixes comedy with a severe darkness incredibly well. Taymor really does deserve praise for creating one of the best (if not strangest) films of the year. She truly does justice to Shakespeare’s play in the year of its 400th Anniversary.
Year: 2011
Director: Julie Taymor
Stars: Helen Mirren, Felicity Jones, Ben Whishaw, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand
Classification: CTC
Runtime: 110 mins
Rating:
