Blu-ray review: “The Tempest”
A version of this story appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“The Tempest”
Dame Helen Mirren has the stuff that makes writer-director Julie Taymor’s dramatically dreamlike adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” work.
Widely considered one of The Bard’s last and best plays, “The Tempest” churns with many powerful, universal issues, including love and betrayal, revenge and forgiveness, freedom and slavery. With her new adaptation, Taymor (“Across the Universe,” Broadway’s “The Lion King”) gives Prospero, the lead character in the magical tale, a sex change, casting Mirren as Prospera and adding gender inequality into the thematic mix.
The Oscar-winning actress not only deftly delivers Shakespeare’s sharply penned dialogue but also fully inhabits the role of the banished sorceress and former Duke of Milan. Usurped by her backstabbing brother Antonio (Chris Cooper), Prospera and her daughter Miranda (Felicity Jones) have spent the past 12 years living on a remote island; their deformed and discontented slave Caliban (Djimon Hounsou) is the harsh land’s only other corporeal inhabitant.
Prospera makes magic with the help of an airy but mighty spirit named Ariel (Ben Whishaw), whom she released from imprisonment in an enchanted tree. She has long promised to loose Ariel from her service and agrees to free him after he helps her gain revenge on her brother.
With Ariel’s aid, she conjures a forceful storm that wrecks the ship bearing Antonio, King Alonso of Naples (David Strathairn), Alonso’s grasping brother Sebastian (Alan Cumming), the king’s son Prince Ferdinand (Reeve Carney, star of the embattled Taymor-devised Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”) and Alonso’s jesters Trinculo (Russell Brand) and Stephano (Alfred Molina).
Washed ashore separately from the others, Ferdinand falls in love with Miranda, and Prospera compels the prince to become her servant. The enchantress uses Ariel to vent her fury on her brother and his royal friends, while Stephano and Trinculo encounter Caliban, who recruits them to help him overthrow Prospera.
Regarded as a visual sorceress in her own right, Taymor filmed “The Tempest” on location in the Hawaiian islands and showcases the black volcanic sand beaches, ruggedly beautiful cliffs and surging waves to great effect. But some of the special effects, particularly those used to depict Ariel, look as dated and hokey as an ’80s music video.
Costume designer Sandy Powell and composer Elliot Goldenthal merge various styles and time periods to augment the otherworldly storytelling, but the real magic comes from Mirren’s captivating lead turn.
Blu-ray features: Two audio commentaries, hourlong making-of documentary, Reeve Carney music video and rehearsal footage.
— BAM
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