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William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream [1999]
from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
starring Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Calista Flockhart
directed by Michael Hoffman

Features:

• Dubbed
• PAL
• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

By far the best thing about director Michael Hoffman's A Midsummer Night's Dream is the extraordinary all-star cast, which follows the precedent created by Kenneth Branagh's Italian-set romantic Shakespeare comedy, Much Ado About Nothing (1993), of mixing major Hollywood stars--here Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer--with top British talent, in this instance Christian Bale, Rupert Everett, Roger Rees, David Strathairn and Dominic West. Kline makes a fine Nick Bottom, with Pfeiffer equally good as the fairy queen Titania and Everett brooding effectively as Oberon. Unfortunately, while both look ravishing, it is hard to tell which actress between Anna Friel (Brookside) and Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) gives the most wretched performance. Both are completely out of their depth the moment they begin to speak, and utterly outclassed by the excellent Sophie Marceau.

Shot in Tuscany and set in the 19th century, parts of the film are extraordinarily beautiful, while other sections could have benefited from some judicious special effects magic. This is not a bad movie, but it is rather uninspired, lacking any real imaginative grasp of the play. In contrast, the much less well known and lower budget Royal Shakespeare Company version of 1996 positively revels in the fantastically surreal possibilities this timeless text. --Gary S Dalkin

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Oh Dear Lord, Make It STOP!
  How can I communicate the aberration that this represents?
  I hope that a number of you will be repelled simply to hear that the roles of Hermia and Helena are taken (and then forgotten about) by those mascots of "Pretty but Pointless", Calista Flockhart and Anna Friel. Calista Flockhart rides a Penny Farthing bicycle and blows the tumbling tendrils of hair off her forehead regularly - but it gets worse, even when the talent gets more accomplished.
  Stanley Tucci would get laughed off a senior... more info

• An inadequate version
  Although visually attractive, there is little to praise in this version.
  The text is so full of delights that it musty have taken real effort to come up with such a tedious version. The comic elements were especially lack lustre. Nothing would induce me to sit through it again.

• Best version I've seen so far of this entertaining play
  I've only one minus really on this production, that this Oberon isn't quite as good as the Oberon in the Beeb's Shakespeare Retold set - that Oberon was quite wonderful although the production generally was mediocre. However, this Oberon is perfectly good in what's such a delightful version of the play. I enjoyed the setting and the bicycles and yet maintaining the Shakespearean ethos throughout.
  Particular accolades to Kevin Kline. Brilliant performance. Worth having really just for him!

• Best version I've seen yet of this great Shakespeare play
  Splendid acting, splendid scenery, splendid conception altogether and especially from Kevin Kline who avoids making Bottom a bit of a twerp but instead presents him as a man with intelligence. My favourite part of Midsummer Night's Dream has always been the play within a play about Pyramus and Thisbe, and as always had me convulsed (ie with laughter).
  I saw the BBC "Shakespeare retold" version awhile back and that wasn't nearly as good - indeed was sometimes quite boring and the play within a play was... more info

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