May 14, 1999
By Christy Lemire
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
As if ``Shakespeare in Love'' weren't
enough to remind the world how much fun the Bard can be, along
comes ``William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.'' With
its strong ensemble cast, on-target performances and fast-paced
dialogue from writer/director Michael Hoffman, this adaptation
of Shakespeare's comedy is sure to please.
Hoffman has taken a few liberties with the story. He moved
it to northern Italy near the end of the 19th century, when, according
to the prologue, ``Necklines are high. Parents are rigid. And
marriage is seldom a matter of love.'' And a new invention called
the bicycle has become the trendy way to tool around town.
But he adheres to the basic tale of two young couples who enter the woods one night and the bewitchment that befalls them. Helena (Calista Flockhart) loves Demetrius (Christian Bale). Demetrius loves Hermia (Anna Friel). Hermia loves Lysander (Dominic West) and the feeling is mutual, but Hermia's father has ordered her to marry Demetrius or spend the rest of her life as an unmarried woman.
All this happens as Theseus (David Strathairn), the duke, plans his own gala wedding to a lukewarm Hippolyta (Sophie Marceau). A ragtag acting troupe led by Bottom the Weaver (a hilarious Kevin Kline) busily rehearse a play they hope to perform at the reception.
These plans provide the perfect playground for Oberon, King of the Fairies (a scheming, smoldering Rupert Everett) and his impish minion, Puck (Stanley Tucci). Their idea of fun is messing with the mortals, and once the night is over, no one will be the same - not even the Queen of the Fairies herself, Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer in shimmering body makeup and flowing golden locks).
Hoffman's interpretation is the third major film adaptation of Shakespeare's work. It couldn't be more different from the 1935 version of ``A Midsummer Night's Dream,'' with James Cagney as Bottom, Olivia DeHavilland as Hermia and Mickey Rooney as Puck. It's snappier and hipper, less dreamlike and ethereal.
And it takes a different approach than the exceptional Royal Shakespeare Co. production directed by Peter Hall in 1968. The cast featured David Warner, Diana Rigg and Judi Dench.
Tucci's Puck drunkenly hits on wood nymphs and urinates in public. When Oberon sends him on a mission, Puck procrastinates, noshing on grapes and just fooling around. When he finally gets moving, it's on a giant turtle, inching its way through the forest. His delivery is deadpan, drawing huge laughs from the slightest raised eyebrow.
Kline, a master of physical comedy, offers a character who is frequently melodramatic and self-enthralled. But he also presents a sad, introspective side of Bottom, making him complex and endearing.
Flockhart is fiery and feisty as Helena, and gives one of the strongest performances of the film, though every once in a while she stomps, pouts and snarls in an Ally McBealish way.
Almost as funny as the film itself is the play Bottom and his buddies perform at the duke's wedding, ``The Most Lamentable Comedy and Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe.'' One actor, cast as a talking brick wall, suffers such stage fright he forgets the title characters' names. As an over-the-top Pyramus, Bottom gets attacked on stage by a scruffy lap dog. Thisbe, the heroine, is portrayed by a man in a falsetto voice who looks like Marilyn Manson in drag. And when the actors fail to find a way to shine moonbeams on stage, a guy with a cigarette dangling from his mouth holds out a lantern at the last minute.
Cinematographer Oliver Stapleton, who also worked with Hoffman on ``One Fine Day,'' has created a visually alluring film. The characters frolic through expansive, rolling hills and a lush, dark forest. The costumes, especially those of Titania and her fairies, are glittering and elaborate. And a soundtrack with music by Mendelssohn, Puccini and Verdi punctuates the enchanted madness.
``William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream,'' a Fox Searchlight release, was written, directed and produced by Hoffman and is rated PG-13.
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