A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)
At the first glance, 6.3 or whatever it is on Imdb seems quite right. This movie is weirder than I could imagine… What the heck is wrong with those bicycles? Furthermore, I am never going to get into the Shakespearean speak; when it’s on a stage, I don’t even realize it could possibly be awkward, but when it’s obviously some Hollywood actors, then it really has to be somebody as brilliant as Kevin Kline to make the dialogue feel ‘right’. (Okay, admittedly most of the actors are pretty bad… Both the boys, Lysander and Demetrius are utterly forgettable and Hermia is so incredibly boring that I keep mistakening her with Hippolyta. And no, I’m not a fan of Sophie Marceau.)
However, considering the incredible awkwardness brought by the setting (19th century Italy! These flowers everywhere! The utterly weird looking faires! And ahhh, the bicycles!), the ingenuity of some of the other actors in the ensemble makes this film a surprising and unique pleasure. Kevin Kline needs no mention since his great performance is barely a surprise, but I never expected Michelle Pfeiffer to be so good! She is a beautifully enamored queen and the way she depicted the dignified and proud queen was glorious. Oberon was good. Also, Stanley Tucci’s Puck was great and it’s unfortunately that we couldn’t see him walk and dance more often. By far, he’s my favorite character of the play and if he had been given some more screentime, I am sure this Puck’s hilarity would have been able to live up to his potential.
The absolute best was Calista Flockhart’s character and performance. I was absolutely stunned, especially because I really only have seen her in Ally McBeal before – a role I have never taken for serious. Helena is probably one of the saddest characters in the whole story and one of the seldom fully developed characters who “only” have a one-sided love. This character would either be full of ridicule or sadness, but Calista Flockhart manages to make the best possible out of it – she’s so likeable and cute? I have always found her to be extremely beautiful, but her face always looked a little bit ‘dumb’ to me I guess? In the role of Helena, she’s absolutely perfect. She gets mad and angry all the time, but her wonderful trademark :[ face make her so surprisingly moe. I can’t think of another film character like hers, and that definitely contributed greatly to my enjoyment of the film. I wish they would write a movie solely for Calista Flockhart where she can unveil her potential as an actress.
Imdb lists quite a few operas that appear in the movie. Of course I recognized “La Traviata” (somehow not fitting at all), but I have no idea where “Una furtiva lagrima” appears! Also, “Casta diva” sounds great! I immediately fell in love with that aria, and it seems to be a Tosca-like role – every opera star and their daughter seems to have sung it. Melikes.
The amazing thing of the story is not only that it’s Shakespeare funniest play (in my opinion), it is being dissected by literature people like crazy. While Hamlet is actually very serious and deep, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” has been made deep – Why is it that people have to choose a play like this to analyze love when there so many more great love stories out there that present its complexity with at least just as well. This story is a perverted play, and it’s good that way.
Maybe the best part of the whole movie is actually the Pyramus and Thisby play in the play. It made me laugh out loud at least two times… How often do we see a play that is so bad that it makes you want to laugh constantly?
In the end, I am not sure what to think about this adaptation. It’s somewhere between extremely ridiculous, yet unique and fun. Oh and it makes me want to see the play! I remember that I loved “As you like it” on the stage, and I dream of seeing a good mise en scène of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” one time in my life.