Dir. Julie Taymor, USA 2010, Dur. 110 mins
Cast: Helen Mirren, Ben Whishaw, Djimon Hounsou, Felicity Jones, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Alan Cumming, Tom Conti, Chris Cooper, Reeve Carney, David Strathairn
Review by Carlie Newman
It is good to have a more serious film as opposed to the bunch of romantic comedies and all-out-action films currently on offer. Whilst The Tempest is by no means the greatest of films, it has enough substance to get one’s teeth into. Taymor has adapted the play, keeping most of Shakespeare’s words but adding in her own and changing them (egg father to mother) as and when she feels it necessary. This is chiefly in the case of the lead character, the usurped Duke of Milan, Prospero who here becomes the female Prospera and is played by Helen Mirren. She is now the widow of the Duke and his heir. Her treacherous brother Antonio (Cooper) has her exiled because of her interest in sorcery. Saved by the loyal servant Gonzalo (Conti), she is set adrift in a boat with her four-year-old daughter Miranda and some books on magic and lands on the island where they now live, served by the ethereal spirit Ariel (Whishaw) and the half-man half-creature, Caliban (Hounsou).
Some 12 years’ later, Prospera finds out that by chance her enemies, along with Gonzalo and some servants, are travelling by ship near her island. She conjures up a storm and the survivors are brought to the island where they are separated into different groups. Alone, Ferdinand (Carney) son of Alonso, King of Naples (Strathairn) is befriended by Miranda (Jones), who is now a young woman, brought up without any other company except than those living on the island with her. The two fall in love. Alonso’s brother Sebastian (Cumming) and Antonio are prevented by Ariel, under Prospera’s command, from killing sad Alonso, who fears that his son has drowned. Meanwhile Trinculo (Brand), a court jester and Stephano (Molina), a drunken butler, cavort with Caliban. Prospera wants her enemies to understand the evil of their ways and finds a way to bring it home to them.
There seems to be little reason for changing the sex of the main character other than to give Mirren the part. She is actually very good and speaks the Shakespearean verse beautifully, as does Whishaw as Ariel. Some of the others leave much to be desired in the delivery of the Shakespearean iambic pentameters and Russell Brand is awful whenever he opens his mouth. He looks good and moves well and he and Molina work well together but oh, his delivery! The lovers are lovely looking, but again Carney has not had stage experience and can sing well but his acting skills are minimal. Conti gives a solid performance as the elderly Counsellor, and Cumming and Strathairn are good too, as is Hounsou as the “savage and deformed slave.”
Taymor obviously has a vision for her film but often the speech gets drowned out by other sounds or music or our eyes are so taken up with looking at the excellent sets and special effects that we miss some of the nuances of the dialogue. Except that is when Mirren speaks, as she is always riveting. Sandy Powell’s costumes are in character and the songs are nicely delivered by the actors.
