A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)

I love this movie so much

Good concept, poorly executed.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Set in the Italian town of Monte Athens during the nineteenth century this Shakespearean comedy follows a group of young lovers. Hermia and Lysander are very much in love but her father has forbidden then from marrying as he has promised her hand to Demetrius. Meanwhile Helena loves Demetrius but he doesn't love her. Lysander and Hermia escape to the nearby woods but are pursued by Demetrius who is in turn followed by Helena. Also present in the woods are a group of actors looking for somewhere quiet to rehearse. Unknown to any of them the wood is part of the fairy realm and they soon find themselves subject to all sorts of mischief as Oberon, king of the fairies, has his servant Puck sprinkle a magic love potion that causes some of the four lovers to change who they love; those unaffected are understandable rather perturbed. Puck also affects one of the actors, Bottom the Weaver, who is turned into a donkey; and Titania, the queen of the fairies, who falls in love with Bottom.This adaption of Shakespeare's play is a lot of fun with its expected romantic confusions and generally silliness. The transatlantic cast, including actors from Britain and the United States, does a fine job bringing their characters to life. These include Dominic West and Anna Friel as Lysander and Hermia; Calista Flockhart and Christian Bale as Helena and Demetrius; Kevin Kline as Bottom and Rupert Everett, Michelle Pfeiffer and Stanley Tucci as Oberon, Titania and Puck. The story may be over four hundred years old but it still provides plenty of laughs... especially during the final scene when we finally see the actors' hilariously bad production. It is also surprisingly sexy for a PG rated film... at one point we even have Hermia and Helena wrestling in a muddy pond! Overall this is a lot of fun; don't be put off by the Shakespearian English it is easy to understand... certainly easier than some slang used in 'modern' films!

I've worshiped Shakespeare all my life so I fled from this film since its debut, afraid of a bad Hollywood adaptation of the Bard. I watched it only a few years ago, when I learned that Anna Friel was part of the cast and I must confess I liked it quite a bit. The mixture of English actors - experienced in Shakespeare, connoisseurs of his work and at ease with his infamous iambic pentameters - with Americans and their nasal English and incompatible "RR" with the poet's lexicon, is often disastrous but in this case the result is not bad. The cast is extremely irregular, there is no doubt. The film, however, is much better than I'd expected.Kevin Kline is a good Nick Bottom, Roger Rees brings his known talent to Peter Quince, and the young Sam Rockwell does quite well as Flute. Among the romantic couples, David Strathairn and Sophie Marceau are dull and plain as the characters they play, Theseus and Hippolyta. Anna is wonderful and perfect as Hermia; also pretty good is the Lysander of Dominic West. Christian Bale is only remarkable for his then terrible diction, as Demetrius. I didn't expect to say this, but Calista Flockhart was a great Helena and her scenes with Anna are the best thing in the movie.In the forest, things are not as great. Stanley Tucci is a good actor, but his Puck has absolutely nothing to do with the character, whether in the physical or the personality. Rupert Everett is also completely lost as Oberon. Together, they look like two male strippers and are more into a movie about Sodom and Gomorra than Shakespeare. Michelle Pfeiffer is awful as Titania. Her English is the most American of all, her familiarity with Shakespearean verses is none, and she recites the lines as a theater student. Moreover, she looks much older than Ruppert and their chemistry - both acting and sexual - is zero.Overall, a very good film, and a great way to know the play.

The acting in general was not very convincing, especially not as is required for a good Shakespearean rendition. Most lines are uttered without real feeling and with clichéd emotion, facial expression and gesture. Calista Flockhart (Helena), Sam Rockwell (Francis Flute; especially in the play-in-the-play) and Kevin Kline (Bottom) were best, my favourite being Calista Flockhart who brings Helena's emotions convincingly with great authenticity. I have read that "this was Kevin Kline's play", but I disagree because the character of Bottom has a lot of potential as a funny Shakespearean stereotype (but this was probably acted out under the director's guidance). Only in the end did he really show himself in the play-in-the-play. Michelle Pfeiffer (Titania) and especially Rupert Everett (Oberon) show us that the failing fairies' relationship was not only due to adultery and jealousy, but also because of the lack of emotional depth in their relationship - which speaks out of their performance. The biggest disappointment is that I don't see the Shakespearean stereotypes played out on screen, Bottom is supposed to be the idiot with a carpe diem lifestyle, but he is portrayed too gravely, which stifles a lot of potential humorous approaches to the character. Puck also didn't come to life as the witty and mischievous knave he is. I also feel that the director could have done more with the mute characters on screen, their short scenes are there to set a mood, but they seem superfluous.The soundtrack was nothing spectacular and the sound-effects and background noises were cheap clichés we see everywhere nowadays (cf. forest background sounds). Most of the actors' voice-acting was also uninspired, and does not do homage to the verbal virtuosity of Shakespeare's play.I sincerely wonder whether the director knows of the potential comedy that lurks in the play, because I did not have the feeling that I was watching a comedy at all. The play-in-a-play was in it's 10-minute totality more funny than the whole 100 preceding minutes. There were no genuinely funny situations, and the movie was absolutely not original in creating these, Instead, it relied too much on the inherent comedy of the incompatibility of some characters and emotions in certain situations, and so took a too passive and unoriginal approach. The movie lets a lot of very obvious occasions of potential funny situations slip by, even the potential very comic situation with the chink in the wall slip (hint: "I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all"). The only scene that comes closest to a comic situation is when Helena runs away from a chasing Demetrius and Lysander, but even this scene was more dramatic than funny. Bottom's lying with Titania too was also disappointing.

Having studied 'The Tempest' at school anyone who knows me knows of my remarkably low opinion of Shakespeare. I think he's utterly over rated and his plots are weak and making up words his nothing to be proud of. Yes he was talented but is it strictly nessesary to dedicate a SATS paper to him? I don't think so.Yes I hate Shakespeare and I'm not embarrassed in the least to say that i don't understand a word of his plays. However I enjoyed this film. Which coming from me means a lot. The cinematography was good enough to make up for the language and the acting was good enough that i actually understood what was happening. The moment the film finished i had to rewind it and watch it again.