The Tempest

Dir. Julie Taymor
Starring. Helen Mirren, Felicity Jones, Russell Brand

Shakespeare's The Tempest is the thrilling tale of a mysterious island, conjured storms, magical spirits, illusion, betrayal, love at first sight, and sorcery. You would think with the cinematic technologies of today, that would make for an epic adventure of a film. Especially when said film includes a talented cast and a visionary director. So...what was it that I just saw?

The film's script sticks closely to the Bard's narrative in all but changing the main character of Prospero to the female Prospera, played by Helen Mirren. Thus it is the story of the exiled Duchess of Milan, who has raised her daughter Miranda (Felicity Jones) on a mostly deserted island, with naught but a beast called Caliban (Djimon Hounsou) and a magical spirit, Ariel (Ben Whishaw) as their sole companions and servants. Prospera is learned in the magical arts, a talent that brought about her exile, and she manages to summon a great tempest to bring down a ship carrying her enemies. She then strands them about the island and through a series of manipulations and illusions, she tests her foes, eventually taking her revenge.

The decision to change Prospero's gender proves successful, as it adds a new dimension to her exile via witchcraft, a fate many powerful and intelligent women have suffered in the past. Also, the character's treatment of daughter Miranda becomes more understandably maternal, rather than oppressively patriarchal and mildly creepy as it would have come across with Shakespeare's original father figure. Helen Mirren shines in the role as well, and it becomes hard to imagine anyone else, let alone a man, filling those shoes.

So the question remains: What went wrong? Why was my only real emotional investment in the film trying to figure out whether or not Ariel had breasts? Let's pretend for a second that I'm not a product of the proverbial "MTV generation." Let's pretend that I do have an attention span long enough to focus throughout a film of entirely Shakespearean dialogue. Try as I did to follow every line, never having closely studied The Tempest, I think much of the nuance and allusion in the text might have been lost on me. Methinks I shall not be the only poor sod in the audience wondering what the fen-sucked codpiece they were all on about.

But let's assume that's not the biggest issue here. Honestly, there was just no common thread of an idea, evidence of pacing, or entertaining factor to the film at all. I suspect with different direction, Shakespeare's words could have been better brought to life. Director Julie Taymor has been so heralded for her innovative use of staging in theatre (i.e.The Lion King), but it's clear she's not the slightest idea how to navigate a film set. Her direction is so heavy handed, you really have to work to avoid it in order to appreciate the story and the strong performances from the cast.

The terrible visual effects (namely the annoying spirit lady/bloke, Ariel) look like they were merely stamped onto the film as a consideration after the fact. Taymor probably put the same amount of thought into them as she did the safety regulations for her Spider Man musical. Even the beautiful production design and the extremely creative costumes only serve as distractions from the blandness of the rest of the film.

Try as it does to be visually exciting and original, this mess of a film is just too unfocused and too dull to make Shakespeare's tale accessible for today's audiences.