The Tempest (2010)

Considering the lack of sleep I have at this hour, I said it would be a good idea to hurry a bit with the entry for this week. I was skeptical about watching "The Tempest" part because of the IMDb rating and part because long long ago I had an attempt at reading "The Tempest" by Shakespeare which failed due to loss of interest after a few pages. Well, that was long long long ago ...

First of all the movie is clearly not for everybody and more than that it's probably better to be either very fresh or dead tired when you see it. If you ever had the opportunity to see a Shakespeare adaptation that was close to the original writing and it bored you or it was close to drive you nuts due to the topic of the phrases, you should probably avoid "The Tempest". From the vague memories I have left since I read the beginning of the play I can say that the movie doesn't jump very far from the original (despite the fact that the main character is Prospera instead of Prospero). Usually (especially if you're not a native speaker and it's your first contact with a play) the Shakespearean English needs a slight delay to be able to "connect" one line with another one and to get a meaning. In the current case you don't have this time space very often, the movie being quite alert and also a bit chaotic in displaying the action I might say (although I must admit that the alert part has its benefits in this case ...). I didn't see any other movies directed by Julie Taymor, but from what I've read on a few boards it seems this style is quite specific to her, and also this is the main reason for what I was suggesting in the starting of the paragraph as a proper condition/mood for watching the movie.

Anyway, there is a good part about the movie. Actually I might say a very good part ... although it probably depends on each ones taste. Visually, for me at least, the movie was superb and I can include here all the parts contributing to this area: cinematography, VFX, art direction, etc (may just the editing not so much). So to be even more clear about this, all what I mentioned above was at a level sufficiently high for me to matter more than the subject, which doesn't happen very often (as it's probably clear I'm not very into Shakespeare .. with some exceptions). There is also the soundtrack (Elliot Goldenthal) that deserves to be mentioned, which might seem a bit weird/forced at some moments but I think that's actually the part that makes you feel that it's there.

All in all, I'll stick to a personal opinion that Shakespeare is infinitely more appropriate for the original target = theater, then for a movie. There is a different level of perception in case of a live representation. Anyway, due to the context of the play, "The Tempest" is somehow a bit of a exception having a large visual potential, and as I said it above this version nails it quite good.

Rating: 3 out of 5