February 13, 2011: The Tempest
The Tempest is one of those Oscar nominees which comes out of left field because it catches the eye of the professionals in one particular filmmaking craft, and they are able to disregard the abysmal quality of the overall movie because they are so taken by one aspect of it, in this case the costumes. The Tempest borders on being unwatchable, and while the costumes are certainly striking, I definitely wouldn’t say that they save the movie.
The film is based on the Shakespeare play, which I haven’t read so I don’t know the story, and I can’t even tell how much that matters to my experience of the film. It seems that the ambiguous setting and period must already be taking liberties with the source material, and besides, the plot doesn’t seem to be of particuarly great concern to anyone here. An all-star cast, including Helen Mirren, David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, Russell Brand, and Alfred Molina, approaches the material with obvious joy, in their anachronistic and overblown costumes and with several of them faking British accents as best they can (with mixed results), clearly loving the experience as this is unquestionably an actor’s dream movie. However, it’s all a bit too cerebral for me, and they don’t really bring life to the story, whatever it may be. With visuals reminiscent of The Fountain (2006), plus a trippy outer space sequence, and with Mirren in charge of a bunch of ghostly spirits, it’s hard to see what the point is. The director being Julie Taymor does at least partly explain this, as she is known for confusing films which are an actor’s dream (Across the Universe – 2007), odd Shakespearian adaptations (Titus – 1999), and overblown productions (the recent failed Spider-Man musical on Broadway). I think of myself as liking Taymor’s boldness, and yet I can’t think of anything she’s done that I liked.
Don’t bother with this one unless you like overly cerebral reinterpretations of classic literature that you probably haven’t read anyway. The costumes are a sight to behold, granted, but it doesn’t make it worth sitting through this mess.
An out of control director’s indulgence.
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