In Shakespeare's fantastical thriller the magician Prospero orchestrates spirits, monsters, a grief-stricken king, a wise old councillor, two treacherous brothers and a storm at sea into a fantastical conspiracy bringing banishment, sorcery and shipwreck into the lives of two hapless lovers to stir and seal their fate.
Here Prospero takes female form as Prospera, giving her journey of vengeance and self-discovery a wholly new resonance. As Prospera breaks her magical staff against an entrancing volcanic landscape at the end of her heroic quest, this poignant story of love and forgiveness translates into a riveting and filmic mystical tale, for our own times. Read more …
A fitfully engaging Tempest that could have used as much intellectual rigour as it boasts shock tactics and effects.
A mish-mash of half-realised ideas that is frustratingly eccentric and empty.
With hellhounds, frogs, and special effects trickery in abundance, there’s plenty of novelty on offer, but little of the magic that makes the play so memorable.
We are left with a fable bereft of the fabulous. And with Dame Helen, demonstrating how Shakespeare should be spoken in a production showing how it shouldn't be enacted.
Taymor’s winningly cast, imaginative take on Shakespeare passes the test of bringing the Bard to film. It may also be the only PG Disney film to contain the word “Fuck”.
Helen Mirren is dandy as Prospera, but overall this is tedious going.
Mirren is a powerful presence: maybe gender-bending Shakespeare is the only way to give Mirren the movie roles she deserves. The rest of the time this is pretty conservative stuff. Worth seeing for Mirren, though.
More of a dreary drizzle.
It roars and rages, like a tempest, but aside from Mirren its thunder is mostly fake.
All indulgences, slashing the text down into a series of limply connected Benny Hill routines, and coming off like an Eighties prog-rock video with really lousy music.
A noble stab at the Bard but ultimately an unsatisfactory film.
The special effects are intrusive and anything but magical and the text is rather curiously edited. But it's worth seeing for Mirren.
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"The Tempest" (L-R) Ben Wishaw, Helen Mirren. Photo:Sue Gordon. All Rights ReservedGeneral release. Check local listings for show times.
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday May 13, 2011, until Saturday May 14, 2011. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
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